Love Interrupted
by Zyra M
Summary: Han and Leia's teenage children travel back in time and accidentally alter the events that lead their parents to falling in love, possibly preventing it from happening at all. They must fix things to save their own existence and their parents.
1. Chapter 1

Leia Solo was standing in the kitchen in her family's home when she heard a familiar sound. Being the mother of three teenagers meant that she had to have sharp hearing as well as sight, and she could recognize the sound of her frustrated daughter from a parsec away.

Sometimes she couldn't believe that her daughter was seventeen. How did any of her children grow up so fast? It seemed like only yesterday she and her husband Han were taking care of two drooling little brown-eyed babies. And not only were those two all grown up, but Jacen and Jaina had been joined by their younger brother, Anakin. It seemed like Leia had merely blinked and then woke up one morning to find that she had to tilt her chin up to look in her baby boy's ice-blue eyes.

But right now, hearing the heavy sighs coming from the living room, she knew she had her only daughter to attend to. As she entered the room, she found Jaina seated on the couch displaying the sort of posture that made all mothers cringe. Her body was sunken low into the couch, her knees spread out in front of her, her head thrown back against the pillows and an arm casually draped over her eyes.

She was clad in a matching set of gray sweats and her long, brown hair was pulled into a ponytail, messy and slightly wet at the ends; matted to her head in spots. It was obvious she'd just come from exercising.

"Rough workout?" Leia asked as she approached the couch, startling Jaina and causing her to look at her mother.

"I wish that was all it was," Jaina replied.

Leia moved in front of the couch and sat down next to her daughter, placing a comforting hand on her knee. "You want to talk about it?"

Jaina moved her arm so she could look at Leia's. The girl's eyes were the same brown as her mother's, and while she certainly reminded Leia of herself at that age, she could still see so much of Han in her. And Leia was having more and more trouble convincing herself that this was her little girl as day by day she continued to transform into a beautiful young woman. Although right now with her messy hair and oversized sweats, Leia had no trouble convincing herself that she still had a few years left to look on her as a child.

Jaina took a moment to decide whether or not to elaborate further. Leia had gone to great lengths to make sure that her children felt that they could talk to their parents about their issues, and she was happy to see that those efforts had not been in vain.

Sighing, Jaina finally answered. "What is _wrong_ with boys, Mom?"

Leia couldn't stop the corners of her mouth from turning up into a smile. So it was going to be one of _those_ discussions. Being seventeen years old, Jaina had certainly shown some interest in boys of the past few years – much to Han's chagrin. She'd dated a bit but as far as Leia could tell nothing had gotten particularly serious.

Leia reached up and smoothed some unruly brown hair on her daughter's head. "I'm afraid you might have to be more specific, sweetie. I don't really have time to run down the entire list right now."

Jaina gave her mother a look that indicated she was not in the mood for humor. "They're just so… confusing."

"You know, they usually say the same thing about us, so you're pretty well even there. Just ask your brothers."

"Whatever. I don't need them in my life, anyway."

"Are you sure about that?" Leia asked, thinking that she was pretty sure once upon a time she thought the same thing.

"Absolutely. I don't need anyone. I can take care of myself."

"You know, having a man in your life doesn't mean you couldn't take care of yourself."

"Then what's the point? Why bother dating or getting married or anything?"

"You don't think I'm happy with Dad?"

"Well, Dad's different. He's… Dad."

"Honey, someday you'll meet someone who treats you the way you deserve to be treated and who you love more than anything and you might find that you actually want to share your life with him."

"Well, how do you know that, though?"

"As much as I hate to say it, because it makes no sense until you experience it yourself, you'll just know."

Jaina threw her arm across her face again. "That's what I was afraid you'd say."

"It's simpler than you think it is. You're just too young to see that now. You'll find someone and realize that your life will be better with him than without him, and if he's the right choice then it's the easiest decision you'll have to make. But I'll be honest, Dad didn't make things easy on me, either. Not at first, anyway."

Jaina looked at her mother again. "Really? He always told us that you were the one who was always calling him names and stuff."

Leia's eyes widened. "He did, did he? We'll just have to have a little chat when he gets home."

"When who gets home?" Leia heard a familiar deep voice saying from the entryway. Looking up she saw her husband walking in. She had been married to that man for twenty years and somehow he seemed to get more and more handsome every day. His hair was tinged with silver in spots and there were lines on his face that to her only served to make him look more distinguished.

"Have you been telling our children all these years that I'm the one who gave you such a hard time when we first knew each other?"

Han looked a bit taken off guard at this questioning the moment he'd walked in the door. Leia knew he had a hard time when faced with both his wife and daughter as opposition. He never beat those odds. "Sweetheart, you know you didn't exactly think highly of me when we first met."

Han moved and sat on the couch on the other side of his daughter, leaning in to kiss her forehead. "Hey, kiddo."

Jaina smiled up at her father. "Hey, Dad."

"Don't try and be cute, Han."

Han looked back and forth between the two most important women in his life and then slowly started to stand up. "I'm sensing this is an argument I'm not going to win no matter what I say. So why don't you two just finish up your little talk and I'll go see if I can get dinner started. Sound good?"

He received no reply and then spoke directly to Jaina. "You all right, honey?"

Jaina smiled up at her father in the same way she'd been doing since she was a toddler. Nodding, she replied, "I'm fine, Dad."

Han's hazel eyes moved to look at his wife to confirm Jaina's answer. Leia smiled and nodded. "It's fine, Han. Really." Han had always taken his job as a father very seriously. He never wanted to see any of his children, or his wife for that matter, anything less than completely content. It was one of the things Leia loved most about him… except for times like now when she wanted to be irritated with him.

"All right, then just let me get a kiss from my other favorite girl," Han said as he leaned down and gave his wife a quick kiss. "Hang in there, kiddo," Han said as he mussed his daughter's hair.

"Daaaad," Jaina whined, reaching up to straighten her hair as her father smiled and walked away.

Once Han had left the room, Leia turned her attention back to her daughter. "Don't worry, sweetie," Leia said. "You need to remember that Dad still sees you like you're seven years old. I don't think he's ever going to accept that you've grown up."

"Well, I admit that sometimes it's nice to feel like a kid, but someday he's probably going to have to realize that I'm basically an adult."

"Just don't tell him that yet," Leia said. "I think he still hasn't quite gotten over that time when you told him you were too old for the Tauntaun ride to your bed. I don't know what he'd do if you ever told him you were a grown woman."

Leia smiled at her daughter, the fond memory of her happily being carried on her father's back while he pretended to be one of the large, stubborn snow creatures vividly replaying in her mind.

She certainly remembered herself at that age, almost equally frustrated with her own inability to figure out boys. For someone such as the princess of Alderaan, having a hard time with anything was an unusual occurrence. She did not handle things well when they didn't come easily to her, especially when so many things did. So rather than trying, she mostly opted to avoid the problem. Instead she had thrown herself into being the youngest member of the Imperial Senate. She wanted to be a diplomat and make her father proud. Why should she bother with being frustrated with boys when she could make such a big difference in the galaxy?

It had been so easy at first to stick with her decision. And then one day she was rescued from her cell on the Death Star by two well-meaning but less-than-well-thought-out men dressed as stormtroopers. And one of them had shattered her delusions that she was better off alone. Even if he had been incredibly difficult to deal with at first.

Leia hoped that her only daughter would someday find a man that treated her the way her own husband did. And she knew someday she would, but right now Jaina was a stubborn teenager and there was likely nothing to be said to make her see that eventually things would be all right.

"I guess I should go shower," Jaina said, not seeming at all placated.

Leia considered asking specifics about whatever her current situation was, but Jaina was the type of girl who talked when she was ready to talk, and no amount of questioning was going to help matters along. So she simply offered a few more words of reassurance. "I promise it gets easier when you get older, sweetheart. You just have to give those boys a chance to become a bit more mature."

At the sound of those words, the door opened and the Solo boys had returned home. At fifteen Anakin was only a few hairs shorter than his older brother, though still considerably scrawnier as he had not quite grown into his own body. Both boys were still only eye-level with their father's chin, a fact they blamed on their height-stealing mother. They'd certainly grown into handsome young men. Even if they did still act like children much of the time.

"I'm telling you, I beat you this time!" Anakin shouted adamantly at his older brother. The two hadn't even acknowledged their mother or sister.

"You did not!" Jacen insisted. "First of all you started before I said go, and second, I told you the finish line was the far side of the walkway, not right when you touched it."

"You never specified that. You're such a liar."

"And you're still a little brat," Jacen said before he moved behind his brother, grabbing the hem of his t-shirt and yanking it up and over Anakin's head so it blocked his eyes, leaving him blinded as Jacen bolted off toward his bedroom.

Anakin stood there, looking ridiculous with his midriff exposed and his shirt pulled up to cover his eyes, only his nose and chin visible. He turned to the couch. "Hi, Mom."

Raising teenagers had certainly proven to be entertaining at times. "Hi, Anakin. Tough day?"

Anakin finally reached up to pull his shirt back down into place, leaving his dark brown hair sticking out in several directions. "Not really. Jacen's just getting nervous because he knows I'm getting faster and he's not going to be able to win at everything we do for much longer."

"Just go easy on him, honey. It's going to be hard for him to get used to his little brother beating him."

"When's dinner?"

"Your mind is always on food, isn't it?"

"Yes," he said matter-of-factly.

"Well, Dad's working on it. Why don't you go get cleaned up and I'm sure it'll be ready soon."

"Okay. Hey, Sis," he nodded toward Jaina as he walked back toward his bedroom.

"Hey," Jaina nodded back.

Once Anakin was gone Leia turned back to her daughter. "See, honey? Boys aren't that hard to understand. They don't like it when you're faster or stronger or better than them at anything, and they are easily distracted by food."

That finally brought a smile to Jaina's face. "Thanks, Mom. I'm going to get cleaned up before dinner."


	2. Chapter 2

Dinner was the usual affair of a mixture of comfortable silence and mundane chat about what everyone had done that day. Although Leia spent much of the time distracted by the amount of food Jacen and Anakin could consume. She'd been witness to this for several years now, but it hadn't ceased to amaze her. Once the eating started winding down, Han had stood to bring a few plates in to the kitchen and Leia followed suit.

Once she placed the dish on the counter she felt her husband's warm hands gently grasp her waist and turn her to face him, pulling her close. "You remember what today is?" Han asked, a mischievous glint shining in his hazel eyes.

Leia had a moment of panic as she ran through the mental list. It wasn't anyone's birthday and they hadn't planned anything special, and it wasn't their wedding anniversary… wait… anniversary. Anniversary of… Leia's eyes widened. "Oh!"

"Yes, oh," he said, leaning in close and bringing his lips to hers. "There's only one good way to celebrate," and with that he kissed her gently, sweetly, savoring the wonderful, warm feeling of her mouth against his.

The moment was broken by a loud, irritated voice from the next room. "You two better stop makin' out in there. There are young, impressionable children nearby."

Han and Leia smiled at the words of their youngest son who had turned out to be quite the character. "Then you better all shut your young, impressionable eyes for what happens next," Han said before leaning in and making exaggerated kissing noises against Leia's neck.

Leia couldn't help but laugh but then she playfully slapped Han's arm. "Leave them alone."

Han took Leia's hand and walked back to the dining room table where the children were finishing their meal. "What, you guys don't want to see your old mom and dad kissing?"

"Not really, no," Jacen replied. "I mean, good for you, I guess. But I don't need to see it."

"Aw, you guys are no fun," Han said as he took his seat again at the head of the table.

"So, what _is_ today?" Jaina asked.

Leia eyed her daughter. "What do you mean?"

"I heard Dad say something about today meaning something. What is it?"

Han and Leia exchanged knowing smiles and Leia gave Han a slight nod indicating that he should tell them.

"Well, today is the anniversary of the first time I kissed your mom."

Leia could already see her sons' eyes rolling, but Jaina smirked, looking a bit embarrassed at hearing the answer. The children had heard the story of their parents' first kiss a few times over the years. Leia suspected they were the only ones in the universe who had reached that particular milestone while trapped in the belly of a space slug.

"So," Jaina continued, "is that when you first, you know, 'knew'?"

Both Han and Leia looked confused. "Knew what?" Han asked.

"Mom was just saying how when you find someone you want to marry you 'just know' so I'm wondering if that was when you first, you know, knew."

Leia considered the question. While it was certainly a defining moment in their relationship, and most certainly the turning point in which she could no longer deny her feelings for him, she didn't consider it to be the moment she knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with that man. Looking across the table at Han it appeared that he would agree.

"Nah," Han said. "I think I knew I wanted to marry her a while before that."

This surprised Leia. "Really? Before?"

"Yeah, before, sweetheart. Sometime between when you yelled at me to get into the garbage chute and when you hugged me after we found out we weren't going to get crushed in that garbage masher. Although I changed my mind for a while when you told me I had to do what you told me and called my best friend a walking carpet."

"You called Uncle Chewie a walking carpet?" Anakin's blue eyes showed a great level of amusement at this piece of information.

"Well, your father called me 'Your Worshipfulness' among many other so-called clever nicknames, so I don't think it matters. And besides, I apologized later for that."

"I don't know how you two wound up together when it sounds like you spent so much time arguing," Jacen said. Leia had wondered if her oldest son had even been listening up to that point as he was still quite preoccupied with his dinner.

"I often wonder that myself," Leia said. She did sometimes wonder about that. But at the same time, looking back on it now, she knew that while they had fought a lot when they'd first met, they had always been fond of each other. She knew now that most of her interactions with him were simply an act of fierce denial in an attempt to protect herself. If only she could go back and tell her younger self that there was no reason to be afraid, and that once she let herself love him he would never hurt her. At least it had all worked out in the end.

"Well," Han started, "I knew she was something special right when I met her, and I knew if it would be worth it. I was right."

She locked eyes with Han then, and while he of course did not possess a sensitivity to the Force she had often wondered if he could read her mind. The smile he was giving her now seemed to indicate that he knew what she was thinking, and once she smiled back at him he winked at her. She didn't care how many times he had done that to her over the years, it had never stopped making her blush.

"Maybe if you didn't we wouldn't have to watch you two being all lovey-dovey with each other," Anakin said as he picked at his food.

"That's right," Han replied. "And you also wouldn't be here at all. But since you are, why don't you come and help out with these dishes?"

The youngest Solo rolled his eyes, but Han simply patted his son on the back and handed him a few plates before pointing him to the kitchen.


	3. Chapter 3

A few hours later the Solo children were all sitting around the living room watching a holomovie. With it being the start of a weekend they could really relax and not worry about getting up early the following morning.

"Hey," their father said, peeking around the doorway from the next room. "Me and Mom are going upstairs to bed. Don't stay up too late, all right?"

The children all nodded in affirmative. "Goodnight, Dad," Anakin said.

"Goodnight, buddy."

Leia appeared behind Han and slipped an arm around his waist. "Goodnight." She turned her eyes to Jaina, "Are you all right, honey? Do you need to talk about anything else tonight?"

"I'm fine, Mom. Goodnight."

Leia nodded and smiled to her daughter.

"Goodnight, guys," Jacen said, his eyes never having left the holoset during this entire exchange.

"Goodnight, Jace. Remember, not too late," Han said as he pointed an authoritative finger with the hand that wasn't around his wife's shoulder.

"We know," Jacen said while rolling his eyes.

"All right, let's go," Leia said as she pulled Han out of the room and left the children alone.

"What was that about, Jaina?" Anakin asked.

"Don't worry about it," she replied. Jaina was still thinking about the conversation they'd had at dinner. It had left her curious. "You guys ever wonder what Mom and Dad were like way back in the Rebellion?"

"Not really," Jacen said. "What difference does it make? They got married and had us and that's it."

"It just makes me wonder how two people like that fall in love. That's all."

"Actually, I just think it would be kind of cool to see what the war was like. Hiding from the Empire, being on the run, all those battles and seeing the Death Star," Anakin said.

Jaina rolled her eyes. "Being in the middle of a war probably isn't quite as much fun as you think it is. It's not like one of your video games."

"Well, it's probably a lot less scary when you already know your side wins. But hey, there's something I'd been wanting to talk to you guys about," Anakin said, sitting up.

"Yeah?" Jacen asked, finally taking his eyes off the holoset.

"Look, you can't tell anyone I told you about this, but I've been doing some reading and there is maybe a way you can sort of… see back then."

That got his older brother's attention. "What do you mean, _see_ back then?"

"I mean just what it sounds like I mean," the youngest Solo said. "We're not really supposed to use it because there's a lot of chance of screwing up past events, but I figure if we're just really careful, look but don't touch, then it could be pretty cool."

Jacen and Jaina locked eyes, suddenly overwhelmed with the possibilities. Jaina looked back at her younger brother. "So, what do we need to do?"

"Oh, come on, Jaina," Jacen interjected. "You can't be serious."

"Why not? We just have to go back and take a look. Come on, aren't you the slightest bit curious?" She turned back to Anakin. "How does it work?"

"Well," Anakin began, "first of all we need someone to stay behind on 'the other side' as it were."

"All right," she replied. "Sounds simple enough so far."

"Yeah, and in order for it to work the Jedi involved have to be really connected and bonded to one another, so us being siblings is perfect. I don't know if I'd want to try it with anyone I wasn't related to, and also really close with."

"Come on, Jacen. We don't have to stay long."

"Me? Why do I have to go?"

"Because Anakin is the one who knows how to send us back. Now, what do you say? Just to check it out?"

Jacen rolled his eyes, but past experience told Jaina that her brother would eventually give in.

"Oh, all right."

"Finally. So when can we go? Do we need to prepare or anything?"

"You can go now if you want. Basically there is a time bubble we will all be inside, so no time will pass while we're inside. You guys will leave and come back to exactly when you left. I can't really see what you're doing in there but I can see outside the bubble in the present if you wind up changing something you shouldn't be changing. So, needless to say, don't change anything! We stay connected, when you decide it's time to come back, you just reach out for me and I'll be able to bring you back."

"Well," Jaina said, "I guess we should put on some warm clothes." Knowing her twin brother she realized that acting quickly was going to be in her best interest, before he had time to think too much and change his mind.

A few minutes later, the Solo twins were wearing warm jackets to go over their thermal shirts and simple combat pants they often wore for their lightsaber sparring. They'd never been to Hoth, but they knew it was cold.

"All right, now you're sure that you know what you're doing?" Jaina asked her younger brother.

"Trust me."

"You sound like Dad," Jacen replied.

"Thanks. Now come here. I'm sorry to say that we have to hold hands for this."

Jaina reached out and grabbed a hand of each of her brothers and they joined hands to complete the circle. She was both excited and nervous. "Ok, now we can't be gone too long because we don't want Mom and Dad to find out we did anything, right?"

"I already told you, it doesn't matter," Anakin interjected. "That's the cool thing about time travel, you can just come back right when you left. Mom and Dad wouldn't even notice."

"All right," Jacen said. "And I don't know about this anyway. So let's not stay there long."

"Come on, it'll be fun!" Jaina said and then turned to Anakin, "All right, little brother, let's do this."


	4. Chapter 4

The three young Solos shut their eyes and gripped each other's hands tightly as they felt the room grow colder around them. Jaina had to cosciously loosen her grip just before she heard Anakin speak.

"Ok," he said, his voice seeming like it echoed. "Open your eyes." As Jaina looked around she saw a foggy orb surrounding them, and she could barely make anything out beyond it. "Now anyone who sees you on the other side will eventually forget you existed. So it's not a big deal if Mom and Dad or anyone else see you, because after a while they'll forget you were even there. But again, be careful about doing anything that will mess up what happens later. I'll be able to see if you screw anything up too much. All you need to do is step through the mist, and you're there. I'll wait here for you. Remember, all you have to do is reach out to me through the Force like you always do, and I'll be able to pull you back in. I can reach out to you, too if something seems wrong, then you just look for the mist and walk back in like it's a door. Got it?"

The twins nodded at their brother and then turned to walk through the mist that temporarily fogged their vision as they felt the air chill them even further. "Don't do anything stupid!" they heard Anakin yell before they could no longer hear him at all.

Once on the other side, their vision cleared slowly, and for a few moments Jaina thought she had been blinded until she realized that everything was actually _supposed_ to be white. It took her a moment to come back to herself and then she felt her brother's steadying hand on her arm.

"You okay?" he asked, looking a little stunned himself but otherwise all right.

"Yeah, you?"

"Fine. Just a little light headed is all."

Looking around, they found themselves standing in a snowy corridor lined with some crude lighting. And it certainly was chilly.

"What do we do now?" Jacen asked.

Jaina wasn't entirely sure, but she figured they should at least move a bit. "Maybe we should try and find the hangar? I bet the _Falcon_ is there."

"Ok, let's go."

The twins made their way through the corridors, not entirely sure where they were going. After hitting a couple of dead ends, eventually they rounded the corner to find a large opening and were greeted with the sight of over a dozen vehicles, including the unmistakable outline of their father's beloved ship. Chewie was the only thing that had been in his life longer, and they had always felt great comfort at the sight of it.

Suddenly the reflection of gold caught her eye and they heard the neurotic voice of the droid that had spent so much time with their family.

"Captain Solo!"

Immediately the twins leaned back against the wall to make themselves less visible. Although Jaina realized it was silly to try and hide. Their father had no idea of their existence, so there was nothing to recognize. To him they would just be two very young Rebels. She hoped they looked just old enough to at least appear as though they belonged there.

Looking up, she saw her father as a much younger man. His hair was longer and lacking in the few greys that had been there for as long as she could remember. His face was very similar but she recognized it as more youthful from the man that she had eaten dinner with earlier that night. And the expression on his face was hard and annoyed, which was not something she'd never seen from him before, but certainly was less common to her now.

They were close enough to hear some of the conversation, but not all. They heard something about nobody knowing where Luke was and then they heard their father yell out, "Deck officer! Deck officer!" before stomping off. In a blur they heard him say a few words, mount a Tauntaun and head out into the storm.

"You know what's going on, right?" Jaina said to her brother.

"Yeah, I think I remember them telling us about this. Dad went out in the storm to save Uncle Luke?"

"Right. I mean, do you see how bad it is out there? Even though I know they make it back okay I can't help but be worried."

"You know they both came back fine. Come on, let's see if we can find Mom."

It didn't take them much wandering before they rounded another corner and found their mother. Like their father, she looked younger but there was no question it was her. Her hair was the same color it had always been, this time braided like a crown around her head. Her face was missing the lines she'd accumulated over the years, and somehow it was already obvious that she probably didn't get to smile much. And she was wearing a white snowsuit to deal with the cold weather.

She was seated on a crate in a large corridor filled with random supplies. It was quite interesting to see how their parents had lived during this war time, forced to hide out on a makeshift base on the icy planet; supplies and ships lining any available space, Rebels everywhere who had volunteered for various duties all to make life better for billions of beings who were oppressed by the Empire. They'd heard the stories their entire lives, but seeing just a small part of it was quite humbling.

The twins stood in silence watching their young mother, quietly seated with a fairly dour look on her face. She looked almost sad and hopeless, which was not an expression either of the twins could remember seeing from her, and both were quite grateful for that fact. It made Jaina want to go over and whisper in her ear that it was all going to turn out fine and someday they'd all be free and she'd have a life filled with love and happiness. But the woman she knew had done it all without any such reassurance, so as difficult as it was to watch her now, she was already destined for everything to work out.

"Jaina?" Jacen said softly as the twins peered in on their mother from the distance, "I don't think we should be here. This is a little too weird."

"Shhh... it'll be fine."

"Yeah, but-"

Before Jacen could finish his sentence the pair watched as a Rebel officer approached Leia, and while they could barely make out the words they could tell by her reaction that she'd just been told that Han had gone after Luke. She pushed the officer aside and began marching directly toward where Jaina and Jacen were standing. The pair froze, irrationally concerned about being seen by her because once again, she'd have no reason to think anything of them. She brushed past them without any sort of acknowledgement or even noticing them at all really, and Jaina released the breath she'd been holding.

After realizing there was no reason to be fearful of being seen, she decided it might be interesting to watch her mother in action. Jaina had always admired her mother. All three of the Solo children had. Well, they had always admired both of their parents, really. For years they'd been too young to really appreciate all of the things they had done beyond just being Mom and Dad. And even now, though nearly adults themselves, it was rare that they got to see them acting like the leaders they'd always been.

Without another word, Jaina started walking off in the direction her mother had gone. "Jaina?" Jacen said quietly but insistently as he remained still and she kept on walking. "Jaina, wait! We can't..." he trailed off and she kept on going. Finally, when he remembered that there was absolutely no way of changing his sister's mind, Jacen caught up and fell into step next to her, appearing quite irritated with how this was going. "What are you doing?"

"Come on," she said without slowing down, "don't you want to see a little more what things were like here? This is an amazing opportunity!"

"I'm a little curious, sure. But we could get ourselves into trouble. We could get _them_ into trouble!"

She finally stopped and turned to her brother. He'd always been more of the worrier, and she'd always been more of an 'act before you think' kind of girl, a lot like her father. "Jacen, you said yourself before, we already know they turn out fine. Dad and Uncle Luke are going to come back. The Empire is going to attack but they're all going to get out all right. All we're going to do is look around a little. Maybe see why Mom and Dad were such a big deal."

Jacen's shoulders slumped and she could tell he was just as curious as she was. After a sigh, he replied, "Fine, but we need to make sure we don't get involved at all. We have to make sure that nothing changes from the way it first happened."

"No problem. Now come on, before we lose Mom." Jaina started walking again, and Jacen rolled his eyes before following along.

Before long they were back in the hangar, watching Leia yell up to get Chewbacca's attention as he worked on welding something on the outer hull of their father's ship. Jaina briefly wondered how many hours of their lives Chewie and her father had spent working on her. Although in spite of the frustration it often caused, she could tell they truly enjoyed the work. Mostly.

Chewie stopped what he was doing immediately when he saw Leia's concern. The twins had often wondered how long it had taken for the Wookiee to start to treat their mother like family, and from the exchange they were witnessing now it was apparent that he already cared for her as much as he ever would, which was quite a lot. And his apparent rage at discovering that Han had gone after Luke reminded them of just how much their father could exasperate him. Again Jaina felt the urge to step in and tell them both that the two lost men would be back in the morning, alive and well, but reminded herself to remain silent.

They continued to observe, watching the frantic wondering, trying to get answers, trying to figure out a way for someone else to go out after them but it was deemed too dangerous and there was no sign of them or what direction they had gone. And they watched as the shield doors finally closed and heard Threepio exclaim something about the odds of survival and Jaina remembered her father's strong distaste of hearing the odds, smiling at how he always enjoyed defying them. Still, it was sad to hear Chewbacca's mournful howls and watch their mother walk off dejectedly, presumably to spend the rest of the night awake with worry.

"Jaina," Jacen whispered just enough to get his sister's attention. "How much longer are we staying here? I'm getting really hungry."

"I just want to stick around and see a bit more action, don't you? I mean, we haven't even seen Mom and Dad interact yet. Come on, I'm sure we can figure out where they feed all of these people and we can blend right in."

Finding the mess hall wasn't too difficult, and the pair sat quietly together and ate the bland food while watching the people around them, all acting relatively normal considering the fact that they were in the middle of a war. Jaina recognized a few faces that had remained a part of their parents' lives, most notably a much younger Wedge Antilles. She suddenly had the morbid thought that some of these people probably wouldn't live to see the end of the next day as there were quite a few Rebel casualties when the Empire attacked Hoth. She wished that she could do something to stop it, but if they changed too much there was every possibility that their parents might not fall in love and have children, and she'd come to enjoy her existence.

After finishing his meal, Jacen looked up at his sister. "I suppose you're going to tell me we need to find somewhere to spend the night now, huh?"

Jaina nodded. "Come on, just one night, just to see them with each other, then we'll get out of here, I promise."

Jacen rolled his eyes, but after living with her for seventeen years, he knew better than to try and argue with her in certain situations and he followed her as she led them down one of the hallways.

After a few minutes they found the barracks and settled into a couple of empty cots, pulling the blankets up closely around them. "I'm not staying one more night here, Jaina, got it?"

"Just this one, I promise. They'll be back in the morning, and then we can see them a little and then we're out of here."

The twins shut their eyes and went to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Jacen and Jaina spent the night curled into a fetal position attempting to get sleep on this icy planet. They wondered how their parents had spent several months there sleeping on their own. Although if they knew their father, he had at least slept on his own ship which would've been considerably warmer. Jacen briefly toyed with the idea of sneaking on board, knowing their father wasn't there anyway, but he feared what Chewie might do to them. Sure, somewhere in the future Chewie would be willing to give his life to save them. But now? He had no idea who they were.

Jacen awakened to the sound of a few Rebels stirring and voices saying something about how they had found Captain Solo and Commander Skywalker. "Hey, sis," Jacen said quietly. "I think they're coming back."

"Hmm?" she said, taking a moment to wipe her eyes.

"They found Dad and Luke."

"Oh. All right, let's go, then," she said as she sat up and swung her legs over the side of the cot.

The twins followed the icy corridors back toward the hangar where they were sure they'd see the men returning.

As they got closer, the anxious howls of a familiar Wookiee helped guide them the rest of the way, and as the shield door opening came into view, the blinding sun pouring in from outside. A hum from a snowspeeder engine filled the air before it entered the hangar and landed gently. Standing by were a few medics with stretchers. It hadn't occurred to either of the twins that they really had no idea what sort of shape Han and Luke would be in. They'd never been told any details of how long it had taken them to recover.

As the men emerged, first they saw their father, fortunately standing up under his own power. Leia was looking on with a combination of worry and relief in her eyes. Although once Han emerged with only a bit of help from a few men, though mostly walking under his own power, Leia seemed to be looking past him. Over the years the twins had been given the opportunity to watch their parents reunite on countless occasions. Their mother going on a trip, their father going on a trip, gone for one night, gone for several weeks, all sorts of scenarios. It only occurred to them now that they had never witnessed them being anything but ecstatic to see each other. Warm hugs, kisses of various lengths depending on how long the trip had been, and usually big smiles on both of their faces. And once all three children had become a little older and more in tune with the Force they could quite literally _feel_ the love radiating from their parents when they would see each other again. It didn't take them very long to find this change of pace quite unsettling.

Silently, they continued to take in the scene. It was only a few moments before they saw Luke being lifted out of the ship and placed on a stretcher. Their mother looked as worried as they had ever seen her, and after giving Han a brief look, she brushed past him and went to check on her brother. Well, the man she did not yet realize was her brother. The medics seemed to give her some words of reassurance and then took him away toward the medical wing.

A few other medics had gone over to their father and seemed to be attempting to convince him to get checked out, but he was adamant that he needed no such help. This, at least, was familiar to them. He looked pale, even to their teenage eyes, but apparently even back then he was never one to do anything he didn't already want to do. And after a few moments of adamant refusal, he was left alone and his eyes wandered to try and find Leia who was already wandering down the hall toward where Luke had gone. The look of disappointment on Han's face was obvious, and then he abruptly turned and disappeared in the other direction.

"This is getting annoying, Jaina. How long are we going to have to wait to actually see them interact?"

"I don't know. It can't be much longer, right?"

* * *

Hours had passed. The twins had grown increasingly bored with this entire exercise. War didn't seem nearly as fast-paced as they had thought. And, to top it off, their parents hadn't spoken a word to each other. They'd watched as Luke was put in a Bacta tank to heal. Han and Leia had shown up soon after to watch and wait for him to regain consciousness. The not-yet-couple had again not shared a word with one another, or anyone else really. But they had shared a look that to them at least appeared as though Leia was thanking him without actually saying the words.

Once Luke was removed from the tank, everyone completely disappeared for a while. "What should we do?" Jaina asked her brother.

"I don't know. Maybe we should go to the Falcon. I mean, sooner or later they're gonna wind up there. We'll just have to wait them out a little but at least we'll be warmer."

"Good idea."

A few minutes later the twins had found their father's ship, ready and waiting. It was apparent that he and Chewbacca had been doing a lot of work on it, as usual. The ramp had been left down, and they waited until nobody was paying attention before going inside. Mostly it looked the same as it always had. The interior had been upgraded some over the years, but their father tended to like things to stay mostly the same if at all possible. He liked that things weren't perfect, that is ship looked lived in and loved. It smelled the same as it always had as well. That smell also reminded them of their father, and that was also comforting.

"Ok, so now what? We can't just stand here waiting for them to show up or Dad might actually shoot us."

"Yeah, I know," Jaina replied. "What about the cargo compartments in the floor? We can listen from there, and then we can maybe just call Anakin back when we've heard enough and we can get out of here."

"All right, that seems safe."

The twins got comfortable in the smuggling compartments hidden in the floor, and began to wait.


	6. Chapter 6

It hadn't taken Jaina and Jacen very long to decide that perhaps hiding in the smuggling compartments was not the best idea they had ever had. It somehow was only just occurring to them that they didn't really have a follow-up plan if they were discovered.

Jacen was thinking back to a time years ago when they had all been on the _Falcon_ and one morning the three young Solos decided it might be fun to hide out from their father and Chewie. Their mother wasn't there, which made this particular exercise all the more fun since nobody else on board would be able to feel them with the Force. Hiding from their mother had proven to be futile over the years, which was decidedly not fun.

They had been hidden for roughly twenty minutes and could hear their father's increasing sense of urgency as he called for them and still couldn't find them. Of course now that they were older, they realized this was a fairly cruel thing to do. Given that they had actually been kidnapped before, their father's frantic state was heightened and it became apparent to them now that joking around like that probably wasn't funny.

But then Jacen recalled how they were found, due to Chewbacca's strong sense of smell. The look on their father's face when he saw them was so relieved that even at their young age the children immediately felt bad for their not-so-funny joke. And Jacen could remember actually being able to feel his father's heart beating much stronger than usual in his chest as he pulled them all into a hug.

"I think they're coming," Jaina whispered as they sat in the darkness, and then Jacen heard the sound of footsteps as well. "Finally, we might hear something!"

"Shhh..." Jacen reminded her. Those compartments may have been well hidden, but they did not keep sound from escaping.

There was the muffled sound of them trying and failing to get the ship started, and they thought they heard some voices and some arguing, followed by the unmistakable voice of C-3PO. Jacen felt as though he was holding his breath, but then before he realized what was happening, light poured in, and they saw a very angry-looking Wookiee hovering over them, holding the compartment panel in his hands as he growled angrily at them. It turned out Chewbacca's sense of smell had always been strong.

"Uh, we didn't know where else to go!" Jacen said quickly as Chewie asked what they were doing in there.

"What's going on?" they heard the voice of their father call from the corridor to the cockpit, and Chewie told him they had stowaways.

Han quickly stomped toward them. "Who the hell are you two?" This was the best look they'd gotten at his face, and it was striking how even though it was clearly the same man, he just looked so much more youthful. He had none of the accumulated lines on his face. His hair held not a hint of the silver that had started to creep in over recent years and was longer than they had ever seen it. And he was looking at them with an intense anger that they had never seen from him before. Even when he had disciplined them and yelled at them during their formative years, there was always still that softer, fatherly look in his eyes. This was different. And unsettling.

"Uh," Jacen stammered. Why hadn't they thought this through? "We're just..."

"Never mind," Han cut them off. "Sit down and strap in and we'll figure this out later."

Han stormed off toward the cockpit. "What is it?" they heard Leia ask.

"Coupla kids, I have no idea where they came from but we don't have time to figure it out. Come on."

Chewie pointed out the seats near the holochess table the twins knew so well, and they sat down and strapped themselves in, watching their eventual parents disappear to the cockpit with Chewie following.

"Well, what now, genius?" Jacen said to his sister.

"We probably should've planned this a little better," she said.

"Ya think?"

"Come on, it's not like either of us had any idea what to expect! And remember, Anakin told us that eventually they won't even remember us. We'll be like figments of their imagination."

"Right, but for now we are actual, real people who stowed away on their actual, real ship. We can't just pretend to be ghosts."

"It'll be okay. We'll pretend to be young Rebels, just like before. And we couldn't make it to evacuate and we hid in here because we didn't know what else to do."

"You sure it'll work?"

"It has to. And come on, it's Mom and Dad. We're just kids. I know right now we're not _their_ kids but when have you known them to turn away someone who needs help?"

"I hope you know what you're doing," Jacen said, looking not entirely convinced.

"Yeah, me too," Jaina replied.

They felt the _Falcon_ maneuver away from their Imperial pursuers. It was a unique experience to have no real concern in this situation, since they already knew they would get away and not get blasted into oblivion.

A few minutes later they heard the distinct sound of the ship trying and failing to go to lightspeed. That had happened less and less over the years, as their father and Chewbacca had finally figured out pretty much every nuance of the old Corellian freighter and could fix virtually any problem within minutes, but the sound was not unfamiliar. In fact, Han had taken great pride in showing his kids the inner workings of his beloved ship. Jacen wasn't as interested in it as his sister, and their younger brother was very mechanically inclined so it made Jacen smile to think that if their brother were here, he could probably fix the issue in less than five minutes.

But their brother wasn't here, and they knew that the hyperspace engines would not be starting anytime soon. And it wasn't long before they saw their father run out of the cockpit toward the engine room. But not before he turned to them and asked, "Are you two all right?"

The twins nodded quickly before Han continued back to try and fix the engine. Between the shouting they felt the unmistakable slam of something hitting the hull of the ship. There had been a small handful of times that their father had not told their mother about, but he let each of the kids attempt to maneuver an asteroid field. Only briefly, and only when it was one of the smaller ones. But he loved seeing his children flying even a fraction as well as he did. And he also knew that their mother would not have approved of the dangerous practice, so that was something they had all kept to themselves. Although as they got older, they suspected she knew anyway, but had allowed Han to believe that it was still a secret.

"Han, get up here!" they heard their mother call over the intercom before Han ran back toward the cockpit.

The twins continued being thrown against their restraints as the _Falcon_ dodged and swerved around the asteroids. They felt fortunate that they had grown up regularly experiencing space travel, otherwise their stomachs probably wouldn't have been able to handle it. This particular escape into the asteroid field had become somewhat legendary, and it was more than a little bit incredible for them to get to be a part of it.

Soon enough, the movements settled down. The voices and the sounds of the distressed droid and the Wookiee howling died down, and they felt the ship come to a stop.

This was going about to get interesting.


	7. Chapter 7

Things were eerily quiet for a few moments, and the twins remained seated and strapped in. They had been on hundreds of trips on the _Falcon_ before and normally they would've just released their restraints and joined their parents in the cockpit. This was clearly different. They weren't supposed to be there. And Jaina felt her heart fall a little when she heard footsteps coming toward them. It was not often she dreaded one or both of her parents approaching. Well, maybe a few times when she knew she was in trouble. But this still felt different.

Han's eyes looked stern as he rounded the corridor and then stopped in front of them. "All right, who are you two and what were you doing hiding on my ship?"

"I'm sorry, Da-" Jacen stopped himself short before continuing, "er, uh, Captain Solo."

"How do you know who I am? I've never seen you before. You can't have been on base very long."

Jacen thought about it briefly and then blurted out, "We're, uh, cousins. Of Wedge Antilles."

Jacen turned to his sister whose eyes were shining in disbelief. Jacen implored her with a look to go along with it, since there was no turning back now. "Right," Jaina said before turning back to Han. "Well, distant cousins, really. But we're also Corellian. And we wanted to join up, so, here we are."

"How old are you?" Han asked. "You look too young to be part of this."

"Uh, nineteen," Jacen lied. It wasn't a big lie, but in this kind of situation being nineteen seemed a lot more acceptable than only being seventeen.

Han's mouth quirked up at the side, but not so much in his trademark grin as expressing his skepticism. "You don't look nineteen. How about you?" Han said, pointing to Jaina.

"I'm nineteen, too. We're twins."

"Twins, huh? What a nightmare that must've been for your parents."

Jacen felt like laughing. He wished somehow he could tell his actual father later that he had said that to him.

"Whose parents?" Leia asked as she came up behind Han.

"Theirs," Han said, pointing at his someday-children. "They're twins."

"Ok, well, what are they doing here?" Leia asked.

"We were just getting to that," Han said as he turned back to his stowaways.

Leia turned to look at them. She did not appear nearly as bothered by them as Han did. She seemed almost indifferent. It was so odd to be seeing their mother so young. Her hair in the future had not started to gray like their father's, so there wasn't much difference there aside from the style, but her face, while not all that different, was also completely absent any lines. And their mother as they knew her usually appeared fairly content. The woman in front of them was clearly weary and exhausted from years of fighting. And again the twins had the urge to tell her that if she just stuck it out a little longer everything was going to turn out all right.

"We missed the shuttle to evacuate," Jaina started. "And we knew that your ship was still here, so we figured we could tag along."

Han's shoulders had been tense, and he had been leaning toward them in a very accusatory manner. But he finally relaxed and leaned back, his voice softening. "Then why were you hiding?"

Jacen shrugged. "I guess we didn't want to scare you. Or have you kick us out."

"Hiding in the smuggling compartments probably wasn't the best idea to avoid scaring us. And we wouldn't have left anyone behind with a bunch if Imperials shooting at us." The twins could tell by their father's demeanor that he was insulted by the insinuation that he would've abandoned anyone in need.

Now it was Jaina's turn to shrug. "Sorry," she said.

Han dismissed them with a wave of his arm. "Forget it, nothing we can do now. You two have names?"

"I'm Jai.." Jaina stopped herself. For some reason it felt wrong to say her real name. She didn't know why, so she finished, "Jane. My name is Jane. And this is my brother, um, Jack."

"Jack and Jane?" Han once again eyed them skeptically and they nodded, both still staring up at their eventual parents while under interrogation.

"I'm Leia," their mother said, stepping out from behind Han. Their father's patience had clearly been worn out long ago, while Leia seemed quite welcoming. She was clearly born to be a diplomat.

"Nice to meet you," Jaina replied.

There was a growl from behind them and the tinny sound of a droid's footsteps before Chewbacca and C-3PO appeared from the cockpit.

"And that's Chewie and Threepio," Han said as he pointed behind him with his thumb. "Guys, this is Jack and Jane, and they'll be our stowaways on this trip. Ok, now that we got those introductions out of the way, maybe we can work on our biggest problem. We need to fix the hyperdrive."

"Captain Solo, I've looked into the-" Threepio began.

"Shut it, Goldenrod," Han said as he started off toward the electrical bay. Jacen smiled to himself. It seemed that their father and his least favorite droid had always been the same. "Come on, Chewie."

The Wookiee followed and Leia stayed behind and turned to the twins. "Don't worry about him," she started, her voice a little quieter as she moved closer. "He's just a little edgy right now. We all are."

"It's ok," Jaina replied. "We understand."

"Is there anyone we need to get a message to for you? Will your parents be wondering where you are?"

"Oh, uh, our parents are also part of the Rebellion," Jacen said.

"Yeah," Jaina agreed. "We haven't seen them in a while, I'm not sure where they're stationed now. But they know what we're up to. We don't need to contact them right away."

"All right, well I'm going to go see if there is anything I can do to help him out. You sure you're all right?"

They nodded again. "We're fine," Jacen said.

"Well, if you're hungry or anything the galley is that way. It's usually pretty well stocked but just keep in mind that without a hyperdrive we aren't really sure how long we're going to be stuck together here. Just come find one of us if you need anything," Leia said as she started to walk away. "Actually, just come find _me_ if you need anything." And then she rounded the corridor out of sight.

Once Leia was out of earshot, Jacen turned to his sister, "Well, Jane, what now?"

"Maybe this was a bad idea."

"Ya think? I only told you that about fifteen times."

"Well, at least we're not under attack anymore. They seem a lot calmer now. Let's just hang out a little while longer and see what they're like."

"Wasn't it sometime while they were stuck here that they kissed for the first time? I don't want to be trapped and watching them kiss."

"We'll just make sure we're gone before that happens. And besides, it's just kissing. It's not like we've never seen Mom and Dad kiss before."

"I know, but this just seems different. This isn't our parents kissing in their own house with their own kids around. We're not supposed to be here."

"Just relax. I think it took them a little while anyway, they don't exactly look like they're ready to start kissing anytime soon. We'll just hang out a little longer. Now, come on, you hungry?"

"Always," Jacen replied before following his sister toward the galley.


	8. Chapter 8

The twins were careful not to eat too much of the ship's rations, but they both knew their father quite well, and it seemed that even back then he had more than enough stocked to keep them all fed for a very long time. Jaina still advised her brother not to get on anyone's bad side though by eating more than his share. After all, how much longer were they really going to stay there?

They returned to the holochess table to sit and observe, watching their parents work diligently on various parts of the ship. It was odd, for all the fighting they had witnessed so far, the not-yet-married couple seemed to work fairly well together. And it was quite apparent that over the time she had known him, Han had taught Leia quite a bit about how to fix things on his beloved ship. Han would calmly tell Leia to go back and weld some valve somewhere, and she would simply go off and do it without needing much further explanation. Chewie was busy working on his own things as well. Everyone seemed to have their job and worked quietly getting it done.

In a way witnessing all of this frustrated Jaina, because she wanted to be able to help, but she wasn't quite sure how much she should interfere. Jacen, she could tell, felt similarly. She thought back to all the times she had spent with her father on that very ship, having memories of working on it with him from as far back as she had memories at all. From the time she was so small that he had to hold her up to see anything, she could recall him doing just that, pointing out something that he was about to do. She had absorbed a lot of it and had grown to love spending time with him, helping work on things. Her brothers had been given the same opportunities but hadn't quite taken to it the way she had, so after a while it became something for just her and her Han. She cherished so much of that father-daughter time they shared, on the ship, fixing things and working things out. She loved the smile of pride Han would give her when she explained how she fixed something, especially the times she'd figured it out on her own.

When she was very small she was relegated mostly to handing her father a rag to wipe his hands or his tools on. Then later she was able to clean the tools. She remembered coming home covered in grease, and her mother would make a big show about what a mess they both were, but Jaina could tell that Leia was happy to see the two enjoying their time together. The older she got, the more responsibility he would trust her with, and she remembered the thrill she'd felt when he finally let her work some of the tools herself. Even prior to that he had always been sure to express his appreciation for any help she could provide, no matter how small the gesture. It had become such a normal thing between them, and she hadn't even given it much thought until right now, when the man who would someday be their father would probably have yelled at her if she tried to just jump in and fix something, as she knew how he felt about strangers touching his ship, even though she probably knew it as well as he did by now.

The rest of their companions were all in the cockpit working on something. It had been eerily quiet for several minutes until without warning the whole ship suddenly moved, feeling as though the ground tilted underneath them and then just as suddenly righted itself. The twins froze for a moment and looked at each other.

"Space slug?" Jacen said.

Jaina nodded in agreement. She supposed maybe they should be more nervous, but since their parents had survived to marry and procreate, the twins knew that they would eventually escape unharmed. A few moments later they saw Chewie and Threepio appear from the cockpit corridor, rounding the corner toward a control panel where the Wookiee hooked the droid up to the hyperdrive to see if he could diagnose the issue. Then the ship lurched again, leaving Chewbacca clutching at the wall to keep his balance and Threepio calling out, "I told you this asteroid was not stable!"

Chewie barked at him in annoyance and the droid quietly went back to work. Only a few moments later Han appeared once again, and his eyes went to Jacen. "You, kid. You know anything about the mechanics of a ship?"

"Uh, a little, I guess," Jacen said. Truthfully, even though it wasn't one of his favorite things, Jacen actually knew the _Falcon_ quite well.

"All right, why don't you come with me, I could use a little help."

"Sure," Jacen replied, standing and heading toward Han.

"And you," Han pointed at Jaina. "Uh, Jane, right? Go on up to the cockpit and give Leia a hand. Even if you can't help a whole lot, she could probably use the company."

"Sure," Jaina replied and then she stood to join her mother. Or, well, the woman who would someday be her mother. She suddenly felt inexplicably nervous. Like any daughter, she certainly had her squabbles with her mother from time to time. But she wasn't usually nervous about the idea of being left alone with her.

Well, how bad could it be? She wandered up toward the cockpit, and as the door opened she saw Leia flinch in surprise and turn, her eyes appearing wide and almost angry until her shoulders visibly relaxed. "Oh, it's just you."

"Yeah, sorry," Jaina said. "Um, Captain Solo sent me up here to see if you wanted any help with anything."

"Well, that was _nice_ of him, wasn't it?" The tone of the words indicated more than a slight hint of sarcasm.

Jaina remained quiet for a moment, but then couldn't really help her curiosity. "So, is he usually _nice_ to you?"

Leia sighed and stared out the cockpit window, which currently offered a view of dark nothingness. "He's usually…" she paused for a moment, her eyes searching the void for the right words. "I don't know, it's complicated."

"Complicated?" Jaina asked, suddenly getting even more interested. Finally she was going to get some insights into these people.

"Very," she agreed, her hands resting on the console and she stared down for a moment before shaking her head and then turning to Jaina. "He means well. Or I think he does. Most of the time."

"Well," Jaina started, not really sure exactly what she should say, so going with the obvious. "He seems like a really good pilot."

That got a little smile out of Leia. "Yes, that he is. One of the best, actually."

"Well, that's a relief," Jaina replied, suddenly realizing that trying to make small talk with her mother in this situation felt inexplicably awkward.

"Oh," Leia said, reaching up to place a hand on Jaina's shoulder, her eyes suddenly showing concern. "I don't want you or your brother to worry about a thing. I know he might seem a little irritable at times, but I…" Leia paused, appearing as though she didn't quite want to say whatever it was she had started to say, but then she swallowed and continued anyway, "I trust him with my life. He won't let anything happen to any of us as long as he can help it. He's also a lot smarter than he looks."

Jaina smiled, and she could tell that Leia meant what she said and wasn't just offering it as blind reassurance. She also noted that it was nice that her mother still seemed to be looking after her now, even though to her Jaina was just some random kid who had stowed away with her brother. "I'll bet."

"Also, don't tell him I said that," Leia added with a smile before turning her attention back to a few wires hanging out of the wall. "Now, let's see if we can make sure these are all working so we can get out of here. Sound good?"

"Sure," Jaina said before leaning in and pretending she didn't already know exactly what she was looking at.


	9. Chapter 9

Jacen had followed his father into the electrical room where he climbed up to look at some of the circuits closer to the ceiling. After a few moments, Han said mostly to himself, "Yeah, that's what I thought." Then he came back down and added, "Stay here for a minute, I'll be right back."

Jacen waited patiently, and started to wonder, for at least the twentieth time since they had gotten there, how he had let his sister convince him this was a good idea. But before he knew it, Han had returned holding a coiled up wire and handed it to his son. "Hold onto this, and I'm going to take the end up there and feed it into there and I just need you to keep letting out the slack and don't let it get tangled, got it?"

Jacen nodded and Han climbed up to where he had been earlier, threading a wire into a small hole and then feeding it through. The boy remained silent as he uncoiled the wire and let out the slack, once again made even more aware of how strange this whole thing was. Growing up with Han Solo as a father, Jacen had spent plenty of time helping him fix his ship. He liked spending time with his father, even though working on the _Falcon_ had never been one of his favorite things to do. That had been more Jaina's territory. Still, he had picked up enough over the years to know a whole lot about the Corellian freighter, and usually it brought great comfort to him. He felt no such comfort now.

And the silence was starting to bother him. He and his father had been able to exist in comfortable silence plenty of times, but this just felt entirely different. "So, uh…" Jacen started, immediately regretting starting to say anything but deciding it was too late. "Are the girls all right up there?"

"I'm sure they're fine," Han said, his eyes still fixated on what he was doing. "Leia knows what she's doing up there, and I'm sure your sister is in good hands."

"Yeah, she seems nice," Jacen said.

"Nice?" Han said in such a way that made Jacen wish he had maybe decided on a different adjective. He finished feeding the wire through and climbed down to look his son in the eyes. Though younger now than he had ever known him, he somehow seemed far more intimidating than Jacen had ever experienced. "I don't know if nice is the word I'd use to describe her. But she's…" Han paused, and Jacen saw something in the older man's hazel eyes that made it apparent that he had changed his mind about whatever he was going to say and needed to find a different word. Finally, he seemed to find it and finished his sentence with, "Capable."

"Capable?" Jacen asked.

"Yeah, capable," Han said, seeming satisfied with the word he had come up with. "I can trust her with a lot of stuff I wouldn't trust most people with." He paused again and looked away for a moment. "Just, uh, don't tell her I said that, all right?"

"Oh, no, of course not," Jacen said. Although part of him wondered why his father wouldn't want his mother to know he said something favorable about her. In fact, the man he knew in the future would've been more likely to go out of his way to make sure that Leia had heard him saying nice things about her. He'd tell her every day, in fact.

"And don't you get any ideas, kid," Han suddenly added, and Jacen got very confused.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I know she's pretty, but forget it, you got me?"

"Oh, no, no, no," Jacen protested, perhaps a little too harshly. Not only was this his _mother_ he was talking about, but Han was looking at him in a more threatening manner than the boy had ever seen from his father. Clearly he had already decided that she was off limits. And Jacen kind of liked that Han was already acting protective toward his eventual wife, but mostly he was too busy worrying about the look his father was giving him. "No, definitely not. I mean, she's a princess right? That's like, totally out of my reach anyway."

Han's face seemed to fall a little, and Jacen felt a little bad but also relieved that at least the edge of anger had faded. So he quickly added, "And she's too old for me anyway, right?"

Han nodded. "Right."

"And she reminds me too much of my sister, so, yeah, no."

Han seemed to consider it for a moment and Jacen realized there was a good chance Han had already forgotten what Jaina even looked like, or perhaps never even looked at her long enough to notice. "Whatever, the point is…" Han paused again, not quite sure how he wanted to finish the sentence, so Jacen interjected.

"I got the point. Don't worry. We just want to help you guys get out of here and then get back to Corellia, right?"

"Right," Han agreed.

The ship lurched underneath them again, and both of them had to steady themselves against the walls. Jacen was simply grateful to have something interrupt this entire conversation. Once the ground settled again, Han looked up like he was listening for something. After a moment of silence, he said, "It's just the asteroid moving around, don't worry about it. Come on," he said as they went back into the ship's lounge right as Leia and Jaina came in.

"You all right?" Han asked the women.

Leia nodded. "We're fine. Everything is all set up there."

"Okay, good. So come on in here for a minute, I have a valve you can work on." Leia followed Han back into the electrical room, and Jacen eyed his sister. Threepio was still quietly trying to diagnose the hyperdrive while Chewie was in the crawl space above them working on something else. So the two were unable to talk at all, but Jacen sure had some things he wanted to say. Most notably, " _Let's get out of here, I've seen enough!"_ But before he could say anything, he heard Han from behind him, "You want to give her a hand, kid?" Jacen turned to see Han looking at Jaina.

"Oh, sure," she said somewhat unenthusiastically, but what else could she have said? And she left to join her mother.

Jacen sighed in frustration. The next possible moment he had to talk to his sister, he was going to tell her it was time to leave.

"I'll probably need you in a minute too, Jack," Han said as he walked by him to check out some of the other electrical panels. "Just hang back for a bit."

Jacen did as he was asked, and sat back down at the holochess table, watching everyone work. After a few minutes he could see sparks flying from the electrical room where Jaina and Leia were, and Han had come and gone from the room several times.

Threepio had walked over to another panel and flipped a few switches before exclaiming in frustration, "Where is Artoo when I need him!" Han was crossing the room as the droid continued. "Sir, I don't know where your ship learned to communicate but it has the most peculiar dialect. I believe, sir, it says that the power coupling on the negative axis has been polarized. I'm afraid you'll have to replace it."

Han was sitting on his haunches near the wall collecting some wires as Threepio gave him this bit of news and he stood and said to the droid in an irritable tone, "Well of course I'll have to replace it."

Without missing a beat he walked over to the opening in the ceiling where Chewie was working and reached to hand him some wires. "Here. Chewie?" Han said loudly enough to get the Wookie's attention as his head appeared from the ceiling, and then his voice quieted considerably. "I think we better replace the negative power coupling."

Jacen smiled a little to himself. It was so like his father to not admit that Threepio had actually helped him in any way. Han walked over to the doorway to the electrical room and asked, "Everything all right in here?"

"We're fine," Leia said. "Just finishing this up."

"Great," Han said and then turned back to Jacen. "Jack, you come with me, I've got a few things back here you can help me with."

"Okay," Jacen said, feigning enthusiasm. All he needed was a few seconds alone with Jaina so they could get out of here, but it didn't look like he was going to get it anytime soon. He heaved a sigh as he followed his father toward the stern of his ship. It was even more frustrating to know that any work they did now simply wasn't going to help, because the hyperdrive was not going to get fixed.

If they weren't careful they were going to wind up forced to watch their father get encased in carbonite, which was not something Jacen really wanted to see. He didn't want to see his father suffer and he certainly didn't want to see his mother forced to witness it. One of his least favorite things was seeing either of his parents dealing with the other one suffering in any way. It had only happened a handful of times, but once had been more than enough.

 _Just a little longer and we can get out of here…_


	10. Chapter 10

Jaina could sense from her brother that he was ready for them to leave. At the moment, she felt as though that wasn't such a bad idea, but since he was busy working on something with their father, she didn't want to interrupt. And now that she and Leia had been given a chance to take a bit of a break, she kind of liked the idea of getting to spend a bit more time with her mother as a young woman. Who else ever got such an opportunity?

Jaina emerged from a quick stop in the 'fresher and accidentally startled her mother who had been sitting quietly alone in the cockpit. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. Is it okay if I join you up here?"

"Sure," Leia replied before she turned her head back to look out the viewport at nothing but darkness.

Jaina moved to sit down next to her. "So," she started, wondering again how in the universe to make small talk in this situation. "How much longer do you think we'll be stuck in here?"

"Hard to say," Leia said as she lifted her head that had been resting on her hand. "Last I checked he said he felt like we were getting pretty close. Maybe a few more hours?"

Jaina nodded. "Well that doesn't sound so bad." They sat in silence again and Jaina wished that her mother would maybe help take control of the conversation, but it appeared that would not be happening. "So, uh, Captain Solo seems pretty…" She paused intentionally, hoping that Leia would finish the sentence for her and answer a question she hadn't asked. She was so curious to know how her mother felt about her father during that period of time.

Leia turned to Jaina and her eyes widened questioningly as she waited for her to finish her thought, and it became apparent she realized she wasn't going to. "Pretty _what_?"

Jaina shrugged. "I don't know, just, like…" she was really struggling now, but this time Leia finally jumped in.

"Oh, no, aren't you a little young for that?" Leia rolled her eyes and seemed genuinely annoyed.

Jaina had no idea what she was talking about. "A little young for what?"

Leia shook her head and looked down, and her voice took on an exasperated tone. "I swear, every female we've come across…"

Suddenly Jaina became very aware of what she was talking about. "Oh! Oh, no, no, no. That's not what I mean!"

Leia turned and eyed the girl skeptically. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes! Absolutely positive. No, like you said, I'm too young and he's way too old. I mean, he reminds me of my dad. So, ew, no."

"All right, all right. Sorry," Leia said with a little smirk.

After another few moments of silence, Jaina asked, "Well, what about you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you're older than I am, and I bet he doesn't remind you of _your_ dad, so…"

One thing Leia had never been able to hide was when she was embarrassed, and the redness that crept over her face told Jaina all she really needed to know. But after a few moments of silence, Leia spoke up. "I mean, he's been a… a good friend, I guess, for a couple of years now. But he'd be the first to tell you that as soon as he gets a chance he's going to leave. And he seems to enjoy antagonizing me more than anything, so it's hard to even think about him that way when most of the time I'm just angry with him, and doesn't even really act like he even likes me. And I don't have time for that sort of thing anyway."

Jaina could actually feel the hints of regret and sadness emanating from her mother. Even being here to witness it she still didn't think she would ever understand why it took her parents so long to admit their feelings for one another. The Mom and Dad she had grown up with had seemed more perfect for each other and more in love than she imagined anyone could possibly be. It just didn't make sense that people like that wouldn't have fallen for each other the moment they'd met.

Although what was it her father had said just recently at dinner? That he had fallen in love with her almost immediately. She had to admit he really didn't act like it at the moment.

"This is different for me," Leia said, turning to face Jaina with a little smile. "I mean, I don't usually have another girl to talk to. I'm always surrounded by men."

"Well, I'm glad I could help."

Out of the corner of her eye Jaina saw something outside the viewport, and Leia's eyes immediately turned toward it as she stood and squinted, moving forward to get a better look. Moments later some sort of creature pressed itself up against the window and made some sort of noise, startling both women and causing them to scream.

"What was-" Jaina started but Leia interrupted her.

"Stay here," the older woman said as she disappeared from the cockpit.

* * *

Jacen had been sitting at the holochess table watching his father weld for several minutes. He'd seen him do that dozens of times in his childhood, and while as a young boy it had seemed impressive to watch him work with this white-hot flame, it had long since just become boring. Where was Jaina, anyway?

"Sir, if I may venture an opinion."

"I'm not really interested in your opinion, Threepio," Han said, vaguely annoyed.

"There's something out there," he suddenly heard before he looked up to see his mother running from the cockpit.

Han immediately stopped what he was doing and pulled the protective goggles away from his eyes before he asked, "Where?"

"Outside in the cave." Immediately after she'd said it they could hear something making noise against the hull of the _Falcon_.

"There it is, listen! Listen!" Threepio's frantic overreactions had always been the same, apparently.

"I'm goin' out there," Han said.

"Are you crazy?"

"I just got this bucket back together, I'm not gonna let somethin' tear it apart." Han barely broke his stride as he grabbed a breathing mask and headed for the ramp.

"Then I'm going with you," Leia said in a worried tone, grabbing a mask to follow along, and Chewbacca went right behind them.

"I think it might be better if I stay behind and guard the ship," Threepio said to nobody in particular.

Suddenly finding himself alone in the lounge, Jacen saw their chance for escape and headed up to the cockpit, relieved to finally have a moment alone with his sister.

"All right, enough is enough. We need to get out of here," he said before he even fully entered the cockpit.

Jaina looked up at him, appearing a little dejected. But she did let out a little sigh and looked down. "I guess maybe you're right."

"Finally, she admits it. All we have to do is reach out for Anakin, right?"

Before the could respond the _Falcon_ lurched violently, tossing Jacen to the ground and nearly sending Jaina right out of her seat.

After a few moments of bracing themselves for balance, the twins stopped to look at each other. "What's going on?" Jacen asked.

"I think this must be when Mom and Dad found out they were in a space slug and not an asteroid."

She barely got the sentence out when they heard some arguing outside the door before Han burst into the cockpit. "You two," Han shouted urgently. "Get back there and strap in, we're getting out of here!"

He grabbed them both by their arms and practically tossed them back toward the exit, barely missing Leia as she rushed in toward her seat. No time to argue at this point, they thought as they made it to the lounge just in time to strap into their seats at the holochess table.

The ship continued to jerk violently back and forth almost like an earthquake, but soon they felt the familiar hum of the engines as the _Falcon_ lifted off and surged forward.

Jacen turned to his sister. "How about it, can we go now?"

Jaina appeared a bit disappointed but nodded in agreement. "All right, probably time to go. It feels weird to not even say goodbye."

Jacen shook his head. "You remember what Anakin said about it, they won't even remember we were here. In fact, it'd probably be a terrible idea if they remembered we were here. We don't need to say goodbye. They get to spend a whole lot of time with us not too far in their future."

"Okay, you're right. Let's reach out to Anakin."

The twins shut their eyes and reached for their younger brother through the Force. They weren't entirely sure how this worked, but he had told them it was pretty simple. The Solo siblings had never had any real trouble finding each other in the Force due to their close bond on top of their strong inherited Force sense. It was strange, Jacen could still sense his brother, but he felt oddly fuzzy. It was like he was more distant than he'd ever felt him, so different from the unmistakable bright beacon he'd always recognized whenever trying to reach out to really any of his family members.

But, sure enough, after a few moments, the twins felt themselves being pulled away so they were no longer strapped in and seated at the holochess table and suddenly were again enveloped back in the bubble that had brought them there.

"You guys having fun in there?" he heard his younger brother say before finally opening his eyes.

Jacen looked from Anakin and back to Jaina. "That was really… weird." Jacen said, feeling it was an understatement.

"Definitely, but pretty fun," Jaina agreed with a smile before Anakin interrupted them. He did not seem happy.

"You better be ready to have some more fun."

"What do you mean?" Jacen asked.

"I mean, something isn't right here," Anakin said as he looked around at the bubble surrounding them. "Everything in the future now is kind of… fuzzy. I don't know how else to describe it. Did you guys do something that changed what Mom and Dad did?"

"No, definitely not," Jaina said adamantly while shaking her head.

Jacen turned and eyed her skeptically. "You mean stowing away on the _Falcon_ totally didn't change a thing?"

"How could it? I mean, all we did was talk a little with them and help with some repairs. Mostly we were just kind of… _there_."

"Wait a second," Anakin interrupted. "Wasn't it while they were on that trip that they kissed and fell in love and stuff?"

"Yeah," Jaina agreed.

"Did you see them kiss?" Anakin asked.

"I know I didn't," Jacen said. "You?"

"No," Jaina agreed. "I think they were barely alone while we were there, mostly one or the other was with one of us."

"Well, I hate to break it to you, but you're gonna have to go back and try to fix this," Anakin said.

"No way, I'm done with this game," Jacen protested.

"Well, if you guys don't go back there then we all might be done with any games, ever. Because if those two don't get married and have kids, then none of us exist."

Jacen's shoulders slumped in defeat. He knew this was going to be a terrible idea, but he had no idea that he and Jaina could possibly have jeopardized their own lives. "Fine," he relented with a sigh. "Come on, Jane. Let's go back and see if we can figure out how to make Mom and Dad kiss and fall in love."

"That's the spirit," Jaina replied, placing a reassuring hand on her twin's shoulder. "They managed to do it without our help before, I'm sure this won't be a problem, right?"

"You two seem awfully chipper for a couple of people who may never be born."

"We'll fix it, Anakin. I can tell Mom already likes Dad, she just needs a little push."

"Yeah," Jacen agreed. "Dad is already totally in love with Mom, too. You should've seen him when he told me to keep away from her."

The twins smiled at one another. "Right, so they're almost there, they just need a little help. And maybe a little more alone time."

"Okay, well then get back there and fix it," Anakin said.

"All right, we're ready," Jaina said as they all took each other's hands and prepared to head back to the past.


	11. Chapter 11

The twins arrived back to where they had left, strapped to their seats in the lounge of the _Millennium Falcon_ while the ship lurched as they fled from the Empire. Eventually Han came back and found them, informing them of the plan to head to Bespin in realspace, and telling them that it was probably a good idea for them to get some rest.

It was odd when you were drifting through space without the benefit of day/night cycles. You just had to keep track of the hours that had passed and make sure that everyone in the crew got enough sleep. Chewbacca had offered to remain awake to start, and Leia, being the more hospitable one, had directed the twins to two side-by-side bunks in the _Falcon_ 's crew quarters. After they had retired for the night, they briefly heard some discussion where Han tried to tell Leia that she could use his quarters if she wished but she insisted she would be fine sleeping in the med bunk.

The argument was one of their shorter ones since they'd been on board, and it wasn't much longer before the twins had fallen asleep.

Some hours later, Jaina bolted up in her bunk, startling herself out of a dream.

"Hey, you all right?" she heard her brother question sleepily from beside her. With their bond through the Force, it was nearly impossible for one to experience any sort of distress without the other knowing.

"Yeah," she said, taking a few more deep breaths. "I just had a bad dream."

"Anything you want to talk about?"

Jaina thought for a moment, temporarily wondering if she even remembered why she had started awake in the first place. But then the images came back, and she knew why she had opened her eyes.

"I don't think I've had that dream since I was a kid," she said more to herself than to her brother.

"What dream?" he asked.

She looked at him in the dark, noticing that he had turned to face her. "Remember when we were like five, when I kept waking up, thinking that I was all alone and trying to get Mom and Dad to come find me, but they never did?"

"Yeah, I think I remember," Jacen said.

"It was the exact same thing. It was like being lost in the woods or something. And even in the dream now I could tell I was smaller, like a helpless little kid again. And I kept shouting for Mom and Dad but they weren't there and I felt like I was going to be alone forever in the dark."

"Well, you're not alone, okay?" Jacen said reassuringly. "I'm here. And Mom and Dad are… well, sort of here."

"Right," Jaina almost laughed then, and then settled back down against the bunk. It had been years since she'd had that dream. It had been a temporary recurring nightmare over the course of a few months. And each time she had it, she would wake up unaware that she was home in her room that she shared with her brothers, and her parents were only down the hall in their own bed. She'd call out to them before realizing where she was, and it wouldn't take long before one or both of them came into her room to reassure her that they were right there, and that they weren't going to be leaving her anywhere.

She was almost embarrassed at this age to be having this same nightmare again after so long. She was practically an adult, and she shouldn't be that concerned that her parents wouldn't come running immediately when she needed them. But something about seeing them this way now, acting as anything but the parents she knew who had been so devoted, was really starting to affect her. Jacen was right, their parents were 'sort of' here, but really, that wasn't enough.

"Jacen, did you ever think about what it would be like if Mom and Dad didn't love each other?"

She could hear the grogginess in her brother's voice, but he didn't sound annoyed. "Not really. I mean, why would I? It wasn't something I ever really worried about."

"Me neither," Jaina admitted. And truthfully, she had never worried about it. Until now, that is. Something about watching her parents interact now had made her think about them behaving similarly when she was growing up. And just how unsettling it would have been. Not only just not being in love, but having this animosity toward each other. She was realizing now how she had taken that secure feeling for granted. She was also realizing that she missed her parents interacting with her in a more loving manner, and being able to trust that they were always working together as a unit.

"I don't like it, either," Jacen said. It was a response to a question she hadn't asked. But then he always tended to know what she was thinking. "It's like… I miss them. Even though they're right here."

"Exactly," Jaina agreed. "And I just feel kind of bad for them. Like, I know how good they are when they're together. They've always been better together than apart. Except right now they're together and I don't feel the same thing coming from them."

"You know, none of this would've happened if you didn't insist on coming back here. Everything would've been fine, and we wouldn't have endangered our own existence."

"Well, what do you want me to do about it now?"

"I want you to maybe go back to sleep so that when we get up later we can fix this mess and go back home where Mom and Dad are happy and in love and had three kids!"

"Hey!" That voice they heard was familiar, but also different from what they usually heard. It was their father, and he sounded annoyed. There had certainly been times when the twins and Anakin were growing up that they might have stayed up too late, talking too much or playing too loudly. And they'd hear their father's voice similar to that, chastising them for being too loud and telling them to go to sleep. It might also be comforting at the moment if it weren't for the fact that this particular version of their father really had no feelings for them either way. They were just stowaways. "Keep it down in there!"

"Uh, sorry, Captain," Jacen said sheepishly. He wasn't even sure if he should reply at all, or if silence was the best way to go. "Hey," Jacen whispered to his sister. "We'll figure it out. Get some sleep."

Jaina merely nodded and then shut her eyes, hoping that the rest of her sleep was dreamless.

* * *

They awakened feeling fairly refreshed. Drifting through space as they were, nothing was hugely urgent. There wasn't a lot they could do as far as they were aware except wait to get to Bespin.

"Ok, so what the heck are we going to do about this?" Jacen asked his sister before they headed out to the galley.

"I'm not sure. We need to figure out how to get them closer, I guess."

"Yeah, but how?"

"I don't know," she said, clearly frustrated. "Maybe we can like, mess with the thermo setting. Get it so it's really cold in here and they need to huddle for body warmth."

Jacen's face told her all she needed to know about his thoughts on that idea before he even opened his mouth. "Is that the best you can do? And what, like there aren't blankets on board? Just because our mom and dad like to cuddle when they're cold doesn't mean those two are going to," Jacen said as he pointed out to the main hold. "Let's go see how civil they plan on being today and then figure it out from there."

Jaina nodded and the twins made their way out into the main hold to find Leia sitting at the Dejarik table with a cup of caf. "Hi," she said with a hint of a smile. "I hope you slept all right."

"Yeah, thanks," Jacen said.

"Take a seat," Leia said. "Han is trying to see if rebooting the whole system will help at all. It's a long shot, but we might as well try everything. So we have some time to wait."

"Sure," Jaina said before scooting in next to Leia. Jacen followed by sitting across from them.

"So, you're from Corellia?" Leia asked.

"Yep," Jacen said quickly and Jaina nodded in agreement.

"What was it like growing up there?"

"Um…" Jaina started. The truth was, the Solos had visited Corellia three times on family vacations. The twins had absolutely no idea what it would've been like to grow up there. "Nice," Jaina said simply. "It was nice growing up there."

"Really?" Leia said. "I had heard the Empire had a fair bit of presence there."

"Oh, sure," Jacen said. "I mean, yeah, they did. But we were on like, the… quiet side of it."

Leia looked confused as she held her steaming mug close. "Which part is the quiet part?"

"Uh," Jaina interjected, "really we traveled a lot. Our parents really loved to travel, so we were always flying somewhere."

Leia shook her head and put her mug down. "I guess I'm never going to hear much about Corellia."

"What do you mean?" Jaina asked.

"Well, the captain there will hardly tell me anything about it. I haven't even tried to ask him about it for months. Not worth the trouble, and he usually just gets irritated with me for asking." She paused for a moment, then added, "Then again, it doesn't really matter what I say to him, he always tends to be irritated."

Jaina and Jacen exchanged somewhat helpless looks. This could be harder than they thought. How was it that those two had managed to fall in love?

Almost as though he was proving her point, they heard some slamming noises and yelling just faint enough that they couldn't make out the actual words, but they certainly understood what he was trying to convey.

Leia even smiled over at them. "See? Always irritated."

Before they could even respond they heard his intense footsteps as he marched closer and rounded the corner. "It didn't work," he stated calmly.

"How shocking," Leia said in an equally deadpan manner, just a hint of a smirk on her lips as she picked up her mug and took another sip of her caf.

"Yeah, well, there's still a few more things we can try," he said as he started to walk off again but Leia called him back.

"Wait a minute," she yelled, and for once he actually listened and came back, his eyes intently on her. "You haven't even eaten anything."

"So?"

"We're not getting anywhere fast, and you're in a bad enough mood as it is without having to add to it by being hungry."

"Who said I was hungry?"

Leia eyed him skeptically.

His face softened a little. "All right, fine, maybe I'm a little hungry. But don't even think about offering to cook me something."

"Wouldn't dream of it," she replied as he went and started looking for some food.

With Han's back turned Leia's eyes went back to the twins and she gave them a little smile, and they could tell she was quite proud of herself. The twins suddenly felt a little more at ease. It was only a brief moment of recognition between their parents, but it was enough to give them some sign that they already had a bit of a connection to one another. Hopefully a connection that would grow very, very quickly.

 _ **A/N: See? I told you I wouldn't abandon it!**_


	12. Chapter 12

Any confidence the twins had been feeling about how easy this might be had dissipated quickly. Han had grabbed a ration bar before disappearing once again, and Leia sipped her caf in relative silence. It wasn't totally unusual for their own parents to act like this. If their father had been really focused on a task, he would often forget that anyone else was even around. And their mother could easily sit in comfortable silence. The key word there was comfortable. Nothing about this felt comfortable. And the fact that the two of them were barely acknowledging each other's presence wasn't helping either.

Jacen and Jaina were starting to wonder too if this was how relationships were supposed to start. Were they supposed to hate each other for a while? None of this was making any sense.

"So," Leia began, breaking the silence a bit after Han had disappeared. "You said your parents are in the Rebellion?"

Jacen and Jaina exchanged nervous glances. Hopefully they'd be able to improvise and keep their stories straight. "Uh, yep," Jacen said, hoping somehow that would be all she wanted to know. Even though he knew his mother well enough to know that surely she was going to have follow up questions. She had always been curious about people, and interested in getting to know almost anyone.

"I'm sure that's not easy, you two are still pretty young."

"I mean, yeah, I guess," Jaina said. She paused a moment and then smiled. "They're pretty amazing people though. I know they'll be all right." She felt somewhat confident when she said that, but there was still some worry that this wouldn't work out.

"Well they must have done a pretty good job raising you if you're willing to jump into all of this yourselves."

"They did," Jacen said sincerely. "They're the best." The Solo children had been so fortunate to have grown up in a time of peace, thanks in no small part to their parents. But he felt like knowing what their mother and father had done to help so many, all three of them would feel the same inclination toward joining in on such a fight. He still hoped they would never have to.

Leia smiled and set down her mug. "Sometimes it's easy to forget that there are real families involved in this. It's been a long time since…" she trailed off and her eyes looked down.

The twins could feel the sadness and longing coming from her and it nearly broke their hearts. Jaina reached over and touched her mother's hand. "We know. It's all going to work out better than you think," she said with a reassuring smile.

"Hey," Han said as he suddenly reappeared. "I need some help in here. Jack, come with me." Jacen rolled his eyes. Working on the _Falcon_ was not one of his favorite past times. And as he glanced over at his sister, he saw the reaction he was expecting, which was annoyance. Everyone in the Solo family knew that Jaina was your first choice for such endeavors, but in this case their father seemed to assume that Jacen was the better option. But this version of their father seemed like he would be a lot less receptive to advice, so Jacen simply followed.

As he approached the mechanical bay he saw one of the floor panels had been removed. "I need someone skinnier than me to get down in there and reach a couple of valves, can you do that?"

"Uh, sure," Jacen said. "I'm surprised you didn't ask the princess. Don't you trust her?"

Han didn't even hesitate to answer. "Completely. But I can tell she's not too happy with me right now, so I figured I'd ask you instead, and you could help me without insulting me."

"Does she really insult you all that much?"

"Kid, you'd think it's her favorite past time." There was a hint of a smile on his father's face as he said it, but Jacen could tell that he would've preferred a different sort of reaction from Leia. Especially since any insults his mother might use on his father in the future always seemed to come from a place of love, offered mostly through sarcasm. This certainly didn't feel the same.

Jacen decided to go for broke. "You like her, don't you." He said it as a statement and not a question. For a moment he regretted saying it, fearing more anger from a man who was quite clearly already very frustrated.

But the response he got was not what he expected. Instead, Han took a deep breath, swallowed, and answered a little quietly. "It doesn't really matter."

"Why not?"

"Don't make me regret not leaving you on Hoth," the older man said while pointing a finger at Jacen.

"We both know you never would've done that, no matter how annoying I am. So, why not?"

Han seemed taken aback. "Look, kid, we all know she's a princess. And besides, she doesn't like me." Jacen could feel the disappointment and longing coming from his father. It was astonishing to him that both of these people could feel such longing and neither one of them had actually acted on it. What were they afraid of?

"What makes you say that?"

"The fact that she tells me so almost daily."

"Well, I think she likes you. My sister thinks so, too."

"Kid, what have you been watching since you've been here?"

"No, I'm serious! We both agree you remind us of our parents."

"So then your parents yell at each other and insult each other all the time?"

 _No, but apparently they did before they had us_. Jacen thought longingly about these two people, so far in the future, wishing he could somehow show these two people on the _Falcon_ how things turned out so he could speed up this whole process. He shook his head. "No. Actually, they are still totally in love after over twenty years together. It's almost enough to make us sick."

"So what does that have to do with me and Leia?"

"Just… trust me, okay? You guys are just like them. And maybe someday you two could be just like them."

Han shook his head and bent down to grab a tool off the floor. "That ain't happenin', kid."

"Why not?"

"Guys like me don't get to be married or have kids and families." He said it in such a matter of fact way that Jacen almost couldn't believe his ears.

Jacen had never in his life witnessed his father being this insecure. It was unsettling, but also made his heart hurt a little that he would feel that way. The man in front of him had turned into the best father he could ever imagine having, and he was sure his siblings would agree. And if his mother's happiness was any indication, he was a pretty great husband as well.

He'd been quiet too long, not sure what to say next, so finally Han shook his head and his voice hardened again. "Look, this isn't why I brought you down here. So enough of that and why don't you climb down there so I can tell you what I need you to do?

Jacen nodded and lowered himself down into the bowels of the ship, hoping that maybe his sister was getting somewhere talking to their mother.


	13. Chapter 13

Jaina and Leia had been sitting quietly for a few minutes after Jacen and Han had disappeared. Jaina was feeling even more impulsive than usual, and decided she couldn't really make anything worse. "I think the captain likes you."

Leia looked up, startled. For a moment she looked like she was going to get defensive, but instead she merely heaved a sigh and shook her head. "Look, it doesn't matter if he does. He's made no secret about that. I'm not interested."

"Why not?" Jaina truly could not understand why this younger Leia wasn't interested. Her own mother in the future, as far as she could tell, could not be happier. "Is he not good enough for you?" The accusation had more anger behind it than Jaina intended, but she was getting tired of people not seeing him for what he was. A handful of times during her childhood, she had seen her mother's reaction to people underestimating Han. It was about the most angry she would ever see her.

"No, it's nothing like that." Leia shook her head and looked back down at the table. As she spoke again, her voice was a little softer. "All he ever talks about is leaving. It's not about him. It's about protecting myself. I don't want to be with someone who is just going to leave."

"He's not going to leave." If there was anything that Jaina could be certain of after seeing her parents together in the future after twenty years, it was that neither one of them was going anywhere. Unfortunately, there wasn't really any good way to convince Leia of that right now.

"Trust me, he's going to leave. It's all he ever talks about. In fact it might be his favorite thing, reminding all of us that he is leaving."

"He's stayed this long, hasn't he?"

Leia looked up at her, and she didn't seem to have an answer for that. "Why are you defending him, anyway? Did he put you up to this? Is he paying you?"

"No, no. Of course not. It's just…"

"What, some sort of Corellian honor oath you all share?"

"No, nothing like that, either. But-"

Leia cut her off again with a wave of her hand. "I already feel like I'm saying too much. You don't need to get involved in this. I appreciate what you're trying to do, and I know your heart is in the right place, but just leave it alone, all right?" She didn't wait for an answer as she stood and walked out of the galley and toward the cockpit.

Jaina leaned over and placed her head in her hands.

"Going well up here, I see?" she heard her brother's voice come out of nowhere.

"Just like always," she confirmed as he sat next to her.

Before they had a chance to say anything else, Han came around the corner and looked to Leia's vacated spot. "Where'd Leia go?"

"I think she's in the cockpit," Jaina said as her father immediately moved to join their mother.

"Hey," Jacen began, sensing his sister's hopelessness. "Maybe if we just leave them alone for a little while everything will finally work itself out."

"Maybe," Jaina agreed, although she was feeling more than a little skeptical. The twins sat in silence for a few minutes until they heard some faint but decidedly angry voices coming from the cockpit before Leia came storming out into the main hold.

Han was not far behind, looking a little surprised again to see the twins still there before he looked at them and said, "See, this is the thanks I get for saving her life."

Leia rolled her eyes, turning toward him and placing her hands on her hips. "You saved my life?" she said with a hint of sarcasm.

Han nodded. "Yeah. Again." He said it as though it was the most obvious fact in the world.

"I would've been fine without you there," she said, the anger rising in her voice.

"Oh, you sure about that, Your Highness? When I came to get you the ceiling was falling down. You think you would've made it to the transport?"

"I would have made it outside and grabbed a ride with Luke. At least when he saves my life he doesn't rub my face in it. And you're forgetting that you wouldn't be here without me, either, hotshot."

Han paused for a moment, taken aback. "You know, that's true. I wouldn't be here. I'd be off somewhere else doing my regular thing, enjoying my smuggling and not having to listen to people like you."

Leia nodded, and replied in a remarkably calm tone. "People like me. Yes, I can understand why you would want to avoid people like me at all costs, and go back to all those wonderful gangsters and bounty hunters you're used to hanging around with. You know, every once in a while I think maybe you're growing up a little bit, but clearly it's just wishful thinking." She stood and pushed past Han, disappearing around the corner, leaving the room in silence.

Han looked stunned for a moment and then turned and looked over at Jacen and Jaina, who were doing their best to pretend they weren't in the room. Han looked at Jacen, shook his head and said, "See, kid? I told you." And then he stormed out of the room in the complete opposite direction from where Leia had gone.

Jacen let his head fall on the table in front of him in frustration. "This just keeps getting worse."

"I know," Jaina said as she slid into the seat next to him. "You know, all I can remember is Mom and Dad telling us stories about how the other one saved them. Dad telling stories about how great Mom is, or Mom telling stories about how great Dad is. Dad maybe brags about his piloting sometimes, but I've never seen him rub her face in the fact that he'd saved her."

"Are we sure that instead of going back in time Anakin didn't accidentally send us to some totally alternate universe? That would explain so many things."

"I wish."

"I need to lie down for a little bit. This whole situation is starting to make me feel sick."

Jacen disappeared to the bunk room and lied down for what felt like only a few minutes before he heard his father yelling for him again. He followed reluctantly. He had heard that having parents who had marital problems could cause psychological issues for children, but he had never really had to think about it before. He couldn't believe how seeing his parents like this had made him feel, and he didn't like it one bit.

He wasn't even sure what he had been asked to do, but he was once again down in the bowels of the ship, carrying some tools that Jaina was probably better with than he was. As he worked he suddenly remembered something his father had shown him a few years ago about how to fix the hyperdrive. Could it be that he didn't know about this trick back then? It all happened very quickly, Jacen worked with his tools and announced that he might have fixed the problem, and then Han was able to send them off into hyperspace. But before he knew what was happening the fog appeared and Jacen and Jaina found themselves face to face with Anakin who was yelling at them faintly.

"What did you do?"

"What do you mean?" I fixed the hyperdrive. Now we can get out of here, and we can save Dad from ever going into carbonite. Remember how we found out he still has nightmares about it sometimes?"

"That's great, but now Dad's gonna die!"

"What?"

"He's gonna die! He's gonna go back to Jabba to pay him back, and he's gonna kill him before he and Mom ever have us, and we're never going to exist!"

"What do you mean. Anakin?" Jacen reached out frantically as his younger brother began to disappear, and he looked down at his own hand and saw it fading from existence. "No! No, I can go back and I can unfix it. We have to…."

"Jacen! Jacen!" He heard his sister's voice as he struggled to catch his breath, shutting his eyes as tightly as he could, he opened them back up and found himself sitting back on the _Falcon_ , gasping for breath.

"Jacen, you ok?"

He looked around the room and realized he had only fallen asleep. He hadn't accidentally set off events that would get his father killed. He was all right. They were all still all right. "Yeah, yeah," he said, "I'm ok. Just a bad dream."

"Must have been pretty bad, you seemed awfully freaked out."

"Well, yeah. Basically I killed Dad."

"You what?"

"I mean, not like, murdered him or anything. I fixed the hyperdrive, and then Anakin told me that by fixing the hyperdrive it meant that Dad never got frozen in carbonite, and instead he went to pay back Jabba, and Jabba killed him."

"Well, I suppose we better not fix the hyperdrive then."

"No, no. I think that'd be a bad idea. Then again, so is telling Dad that Mom likes him. He didn't seem to believe me."

"Yeah," Jaina said, sitting on the bed next to her brother. "I told Mom that Dad liked her. She said she knows already, but she doesn't want to be with someone who's just going to leave. I can't seem to convince her he's not going to leave."

Jacen looked confused. "He hasn't left for three years, why would he leave now?"

"Yeah, try and tell her that."


	14. Chapter 14

Jacen's nightmare had left both of the twins a little shaken. Jacen himself wasn't sure which part of it disturbed him more; the fact that he was responsible for his father's death or the fact that it would result in him and his siblings never being born. He also didn't want to think about his mother's future if none of them were in it.

They had again made their way out to the lounge after grabbing some ration bars for a little "afternoon" snack. It seemed like afternoon, anyway, or whatever version of it they had while drifting through space without any sort of daylight. Quietly, they worked through the bland rations while their morale continued to drop. They just seemed to keep making things worse.

Jaina leaned in close to her brother and said in a low voice, "What if we made them dinner?"

"Huh?" Jacen didn't understand how that was supposed to help.

"You know, like when we were much younger, a few times we made them a romantic dinner for their anniversary or something. They always seemed to really like that."

"We were like eleven the last time we did that. And of course they liked it; they actually loved each other and mostly they just thought we were being cute."

"If we can just get them to kiss, just once, we'll be good. I mean, I'm pretty sure after those romantic dinners we made them they had sex, so…"

Jacen cringed. "Gross, don't make me think about Mom and Dad having sex."

"Come on, we both know they probably do it all the time."

"Yeah, because they _like_ each other. You keep forgetting that! And please stop talking about it!"

"Look, it's worth a shot. Chewie should be asleep until they're going to bed later. We just need to get them to sit down together by themselves and maybe have a chance to be civil with each other."

"What makes you think they'd suddenly decide to be civil with each other?"

"I don't know," Jaina said, clearly frustrated. "I mean, somehow last time without our help they managed to start being civil with each other. They can manage again, right? Come on, we can just tell them we want to make dinner as sort of a thank you for taking care of us. Then maybe we can pretend we're really tired or something and leave them to go to bed."

Jacen stayed silent for a few moments but finally threw up his hands and shook his head. "Whatever, I guess it can't hurt."

"Ok, then. I think maybe we should start with Mom, I bet she'd be a little more receptive to this."

"I think that's probably a good idea," Jacen agreed.

Both young Solos wandered up to the cockpit where they found Leia busy working through some wires near the navicomputer. "Hey," Jaina started, and Leia turned to see them and let out a little smile.

"Hey, there," Leia replied in a pleasant tone. The twins sensed a bit of relief from her that it was them who had interrupted them, and not Han.

"Um," Jaina began, not really sure the best way to approach this, "So my brother and I were thinking maybe we could make us all dinner as sort of a thank you for letting us tag along on this trip."

Leia's eyebrows shot up in surprise and she stopped what she'd been doing. "Really? Look, you don't owe us anything. We're all in this together and you've both been pretty helpful already."

 _If you only knew how completely unhelpful we've been to you on this trip,_ Jaina thought to herself. "No, I mean, we know," Jaina said. "It's just the least we could do. And I think we could all use a break from ration bars. I mean, I guess as long as you can convince the captain to let us use some of the real food stores. But since we have plenty, we figured…"

Leia smiled again, and the twins decided they had really missed seeing their mother smile. "All right, well, that sounds nice, thank you. I'll let Han know, don't even worry about him. Let me know if you need any help, and use whatever you need."

"Ok, great!" Jacen said. "Um, then I guess we should go get to work, right?" Jacen took his sister's hand and the twins exited the cockpit.

* * *

Leia watched the twins leave and smiled to herself. While this whole situation had been strange to say the least, she somehow felt at ease around those two kids. It was a little strange thinking of them as kids given that they were not much younger than she was. Although she and Han both suspected they were at least a little bit younger than they'd said they were. Still, it was nice to have some new faces around, and they'd been helpful, and, more importantly, pleasant, which was more than she could say about Han. She also had to admit that it was nice to have another female around to talk to. Although she had forgotten what it was like to talk about things like feelings or men. She hoped that they wouldn't spend anymore time talking about Han.

Speaking of Han, she would have to let him know about dinner, so she went and found him buried in the electrical bay wearing his protective goggles as he worked on welding something or another together. It was amazing to her how since she'd known him, he had never run out of things to fix on his ship.

He sensed her presence and didn't even look up or stop what he was doing when she walked in. "You need help with something?"

"No, not really," she replied. The neutral tone he'd responded in was better than any anger or irritation she often expected from him. It was enough to make her remember that when not laced with some sort of sarcasm or insult, she really liked the sound of his voice. "Um, Jack and Jane said they wanted to make us all dinner."

That did get him to stop. He lifted the goggles off his eyes and looked up at her, slightly perplexed. "Dinner?"

She nodded. "They just wanted to thank us for helping them."

Han scowled and then turned back to pick at a few wires sticking out of the panel he'd been working on. "I don't really need any thanks from anyone."

Leia rolled her eyes. "Yes, of course you don't. And I don't, either. I told them that, but they said they wanted to anyway and I figured it could be, you know, nice."

"Nice?" he said as he turned to face her again.

She nodded at him. "Yes, nice. Sometimes people do nice things for each other, and sometimes the best thing you can do is just _let_ them. Maybe you should try it sometime."

He stood and turned to face her., still about an arm's length away. "Hey, I'm _nice_ ," he said. "You're the one who could be a little nicer. Come on, admit it. Sometimes you think I'm all right."

For once, he seemed to be acting sincere. And the truth was, she _did_ like him. Quite a lot of the time, actually. He just seemed to go out of his way to annoy her so often, it made it hard to remember those times when he acted like a normal human. She took a moment to consider her answer and decided to concede, but only a little. "Occasionally, maybe. When you aren't acting like a scoundrel."

"Scoundrel?" he said as he reached over and took her hand. Gods, his hands were warm. Sometimes she forgot how little actual human contact she had. Anytime anyone touched her, it was such a novel feeling. And when Han was the one doing the touching, it was something entirely different she tried not to think too much about. "Scoundrel?" he repeated as he started to massage her fingers. "I like the sound of that."

She looked down at her hands, not wanting him to stop holding them, but also not wanting him to know that she didn't want him to stop holding them. "Stop that," she said.

"Stop what?" he asked, and she noticed that his voice had somehow gotten softer and lower and was absent his usual antagonizing tones.

"Stop that. My hands are dirty."

"My hands are dirty, too. What are you afraid of?"

"Afraid?" Of course Leia liked to assume she was not afraid of anything. But something about this was different.

"You're trembling." His voice was getting lower now, and she realized that his face had gotten steadily closer. In spite of her apprehension, she realized that she didn't want him to move away.

Still, she couldn't admit that to him. "I'm not trembling."

"You like me because I'm a scoundrel. There aren't enough scoundrels in your life."

She shook her head and risked a glance at his lips. This was not the first time she had noticed how inviting those lips looked. "I happen to like nice men."

"I'm a nice man."

His lips were centims from hers. "No you're not-"

"Sir!" Threepio's neurotic voice sounded as the droid burst into the room and Han and Leia jumped. "Our guests have begun raiding the kitchen. I tried to tell them not to, but-"

Han immediately turned to him. "Shut up, Threepio. I know what they're doing. Don't worry about it."

Han had released her hand and she took the opportunity to leave, not really sure what she was feeling at the moment, but feeling like she needed a bit of time to herself.

* * *

Leia spent some time sitting in the cockpit and thinking about what had just happened. Or what had just almost happened, anyway. Han looked like he was about to kiss her. Would he have if Threepio hadn't interrupted? Or perhaps he was just teasing her again? It was so hard to tell with him. Part of her wondered very much what his lips would've felt like on hers. But another part of her hoped that he would just leave her alone long enough to disappear before he did something that would leave her heartbroken at his departure. She had had enough heartbreak. Although truth be told, it was probably already too late to avoid being heartbroken at his departure. If nothing else, he had become a valued friend. In spite of their bickering, they had also shared more than a few pleasant moments over the last few years. She cared a great deal about him, and as much as she tried not to believe it, she knew that he cared for her as well. For a while it had been easy to make herself believe that he was the type of person who didn't truly care about anyone, but she was no longer capable of making herself believe that lie, no matter how many times she tried to convince herself.

And, gods, it felt _good_ that he cared for her like that. And he cared about her not because he had been paid to do so, or because it was required of him due to her status in the Rebellion. It had become almost tiresome to be revered by so many and looked at because of her status or title. Han was one of the only people she knew who looked at her just as the person she was, regardless of being a princess or a Rebel leader. It was refreshing, to say the least.

After some amount of time she wasn't sure of, the smell of real food wafted into the cockpit. It smelled absolutely delicious, although Leia wasn't sure if it was because it was going to be that good or if it was just that they'd subsisted on dry ration bars for a few days and almost any cooked food at that point would smell delicious. It didn't really matter.

"Hey," the young girl, Jane, entered the cockpit and stopped behind Leia. "So, dinner's ready whenever you are."

"Great, I'm starved," Leia said. Although, truthfully, her stomach had been in knots since she had been with Han a little while ago. She wasn't really sure how she felt about eating right now, but she didn't want to be rude.

"Jack went to get Captain Solo," the girl said as Leia followed her out to the main hold to sit at the holochess table.

"Great," Leia replied without any enthusiasm.

Moments later, Han and Jack appeared. Han's eyes met Leia and she looked away awkwardly before he sat down across from her.

Jane appeared from the galley holding a platter she placed down on the holochess table. "All right, we used some of the Nerf tenderloins you had frozen in there, and then we made some of this Corellian sauce. It's a little spicy, but not too bad," the girl said as she eyed Leia. Han, of course, loved anything spicy. Leia wasn't a huge fan, but she had slowly been coming around as Han introduced her to a little more of it.

Leia looked up at their two passengers, who had oddly eager looks on their faces. "This is really nice, thank you so much."

"Oh, no problem at all," Jane replied.

Leia glanced over at Han who was staring down at the platter of food, looking a little dumbfounded. Sensing her eyes on him, he finally looked up at her and she raised her eyebrows a little bit and was about read to kick him under the table. _Say thank you, Han!_

Finally, he seemed to figure out why she was staring at him with that look on her face. "Uh, thanks, guys. It looks good."

The twins sat down with them and everyone took some of the food. Leia had to admit, it did look appetizing. She was almost starting to forget that her stomach was tied in knots.

In spite of Han's reluctance to allow this in the first place, he didn't hesitate at all in digging in. After chewing his first bite, his face had a look of confusion on it. "What did you put in this sauce?"

The twins both looked at each other before Jack replied. "Um, it's an old family recipe. Our dad taught us how to make it."

"Your dad, huh? Well your dad seems to know his way around a kitchen."

"Oh, definitely," Jack replied. "He showed us how to make all kinds of stuff."

"What about your mother?" Leia asked.

The twins looked at each other again, this time with a sort of amused look on their faces. Jane spoke up this time. "Um, I mean, our mom is an ok cook, I guess. And she's great at a lot of other things, but Dad is the one who's really good at it. Mom hasn't really shown us a whole lot of recipes."

Leia's eyes fell back on Han who kind of smirked as he looked up at her. "Hear that? You and their mom would probably get along great."

"Look, it's not my fault I didn't have to do much cooking when I was growing up."

Han looked as though he was maybe ready to take another dig at her, but then changed his mind. He knew teasing her about her upbringing could be a sensitive topic. She wasn't above taking a joke, but if she spent too much time thinking about her childhood, it was inevitable that the grief would start to rear its ugly head. To Han's credit, he tended to do a decent job of knowing where the limit was on that topic.

Leia decided to change the subject. "Where's Threepio?" Suddenly she was hoping for another interruption from that droid.

Han didn't even look up from his plate. It seemed he was really, really enjoying this meal those kids had cooked for him. "I shut him down."

"Han!" Leia exclaimed.

He shrugged innocently. "What? Do you need him for something right now?"

"Well, no, but…"

"Then don't worry about it. I'll turn him back on later. I thought we could use maybe a quiet meal without hearing from Goldenrod for an hour or two."

Leia shook her head. She had a feeling she knew exactly why Han had shut him down. She had to admit, she had spent a lot of that time between their last encounter and dinner wondering what might have happened if Threepio hadn't walked in. It was probably for the best that he'd shown up.

Suddenly she realized she was still staring at Han, and he looked up and noticed. "Are you gonna eat something or what?"

"Oh," Leia said, looking down at her plate. "Right." She cut the meat into a few small pieces and took her first bite. She had to admit, it was pretty darn good. In fact, it was far better than anything she'd had in the mess hall for months. "Mmmm… you kids tell your dad that he taught you well."

"Don't worry, we will," she heard Jack say, but she had become totally preoccupied with eating her dinner. It hadn't really occurred to her how hungry she was until she'd actually begun eating.

Only a few bites later she heard Jane say, "So, listen, we're both really tired and we're going to go to sleep, but why don't you two stay here and finish up, ok?"

"Aren't you going to finish?" Leia asked as the twins made their way back toward the galley.

"Oh, we ate like half of it while we were cooking anyway, so, ok, goodnight!"

Their exit was so abrupt and unexpected, there wasn't really any opportunity to stop them. Leia looked over to Han, whose eyes met hers for a moment before he shrugged and went back to his food. This was certainly not the first time the two had eaten a meal alone together, but to her at least, after their last encounter, this definitely felt different.

Leia thought back to her conversation with Jane earlier that day. "I think those two are up to something," she said to Han.

He looked up at her, concerned. "What do you mean? You don't think they…" he looked down at his food and she noticed he'd stopped chewing.

"Oh, no, no. Keep eating, I'm sure they didn't do anything to the food."

"Good," Han said before cutting another bite. "Because I hate to admit it, but this is almost as good as when I make it."

"I mean…" Leia started, "I guess you are a pretty good cook."

"Why, princess, did you just say something nice to me?" he asked with that typical crooked grin on his face.

She rolled her eyes. In her entire lifetime she wasn't sure she'd rolled her eyes as much as she had since she had met this man. "For once can you just say thank you like a normal person?"

"Come on, you've known me for three years. I'm definitely not a normal person."

She sighed, but she found herself slightly less irritated with him. "No, I suppose you're not."

"I mean, you _could_ say I'm a nice person, though."

He wasn't looking at her when he'd said it. But after a moment of silence his eyes came up and met hers. She was hoping that somehow he had forgotten what had happened earlier, even though she knew that was impossible. She didn't know what she wanted to happen at that moment. Did she want him to take her hand again? To kiss her? To feel his arms around her? Should they talk about it? But then how would that help?

She put her fork down and looked at him. So often she thought of him as someone who didn't even have real feelings. How could he, if he so enjoyed acting so cavalier about everything? But the more she got to know him, the more unfair she felt that assessment was. Why couldn't he just be completely awful? That would make interacting with him like this so much easier. She wouldn't have to care how he felt or what she said to him. "Look, Han, I-"

She was cut off by a growl from behind her that caused her to jump. Han looked up and she could tell he was more than slightly disappointed. "Hey, Chewie. The kids made us dinner. I didn't want to wake you."

Chewie growled again. "Sorry, Pal. I know it's been a little while since we had real food but I figured you would want to stay asleep a while longer. Uh," he started and then looked at Leia and she could tell that he wished he could've heard what she had to say, but he really had no choice here. "There's plenty, grab a plate and sit down."

The Wookiee went into the galley and returned with a plate of his own and sat down. The rest of the meal was spent with Han updating Chewie on the progress they'd made while he was resting, and Leia finished her food in silence.


	15. Chapter 15

**_A/N: Um... hi? Apologies, again, for the incredibly belated update. I have been reminded that if I don't finish this story, then Han and Leia will never get to be together again and live happily ever after, and we can't have that..._**

* * *

Jacen had peeked out into the galley to see how things were going, and his heart sank when he saw his parents were no longer talking to each other, let alone kissing. He burst back into the bunk room to find Jaina. "This isn't working. Chewie woke up!"

"What is he doing up?"

"He smelled food, what do you think?"

The twins were reaching their breaking point. It was almost like they could feel how hopeless this was getting. "I don't think I can deal with this anymore. I miss Mom and Dad. _Our_ Mom and Dad, the ones who raised us love us and who can stand the sight of each other."

"I know," Jacen said as he went and sat next to his sister on the bunk and put an arm around her. "I miss them too. I think I even miss Anakin."

That got a little laugh out of Jaina. "We must be in pretty bad shape if you're willing to admit that out loud."

"Yeah, well, if we make it out of this all right, just don't ever tell him I said that."

Jaina laughed, but the moment of levity was fleeting, and the twins once again found themselves preoccupied with worry.

After a few moments of silence, Jacen spoke softly. "Hey, you remember the time we went on that trip to Mon Calamari and like, everything went wrong?"

Jaina smiled at the memory. The Solos had traveled extensively together. Even when they were babies, it was not unusual to pack everyone up and take the _Falcon_ off to some planet somewhere. That ship was almost as much home as any other actual home they'd known. Which is why it made it feel even more wrong now to be trapped on the ship that was usually so comfortable and happy, and now only made them feel lost. Normally their travels had gone smoothly, but the particular incident that Jacen was referring to had been an unmitigated disaster. "There was that leak in the hotel room, Dad rented that speeder that turned out to be a piece of garbage, and Anakin spent half the time puking."

"Yeah, and Mom and Dad were just exhausted and annoyed and it was maybe the most mad at each other we ever saw them. At least until now, anyway."

"It really started to freak Anakin out, I think. I mean, it started to freak _me_ out too. And then when they were arguing over whose idea it was to come anyway finally he just shouted, 'Will you guys just _love_ each other again already?'" Jaina did her best impersonation of their exasperated younger brother.

"I don't know if I'll ever forget the look on their faces. It was almost like they were offended at the idea that they didn't love each other."

"It worked, though. Got them to stop fighting and they even kissed just to help make him feel better." Jaina couldn't help but smile as she remembered her parents appeasing Anakin. _Oh, honey, we're just tired and upset. I still love Daddy and he still loves me, see?_ They'd shared a brief kiss and hug and immediately decided that it no longer mattered whose idea the trip was. If only this could be so simple. "Hey, maybe if one of us runs out there and yells that at them they'll kiss and we can just get out of here."

"If this goes much longer I may wind up doing just that."

"Not if I do it first," Jaina replied. "And then, remember that time we decided to make them breakfast on their anniversary?"

"Hah, yeah. I think some of it was maybe even edible." They remembered going into their bedroom with Anakin, finding their mother and father snuggled together in one giant lump in the middle of the bed. It wasn't often that they could manage to surprise their parents, but the pair had been dead asleep. Perhaps because the Solo children had decided the easiest way to surprise them would be to deliver breakfast unspeakably early. The sun had barely begun to illuminate the sky. Now of course they knew that maybe the best gift they could've given their parents was to leave them alone and let them sleep.

They must have been in a particularly good mood that morning though because instead of telling their kids to go back to bed, they decided to invite them into the bed to enjoy the breakfast with them. There were countless little memories just like that one. Small moments, big moments, and everything in between. But at the center of all of them was their mother and father, as bonded and sure in their love as Jacen and Jaina imagined anyone could be.

"What if they never get to have any anniversaries?" Jaina said quietly. She was afraid to even voice the thought out loud, but the possibility was starting to feel a little too real.

Jacen didn't even get a chance to answer before they were startled at the sound of their mother's voice. "Oh, good, you're still up," she said before she walked in. Her eyes fell on their faces, and for the slightest moment they saw the motherly sort of concern that they had been used to from her. "Are you all right?"

Jaina sniffed and wiped at her eyes. "Yeah, we're just…" she trailed off for a moment, and then Jacen finished the sentence for her.

"We just miss our parents. And home." There was no reason to lie. They missed their parents more than anything.

Leia's concern morphed into a bit of a smile, and she sat down on the bunk across from them. "I understand," she said in a soft, soothing sort of voice so familiar to them. "I know it's hard for all of us to be at war. So many families have been separated or…" now she trailed off and looked at the floor briefly. "Or worse," she continued. "We'll do everything we can though to make sure you see them soon."

Jacen briefly wondered if she would listen if he told her that all she needed to do to make that happen was to walk back out to Han Solo, grab him, and kiss him like she meant it. Knowing her, probably not.

Looking at her face, he could see a hint of sadness there for her as well. Somehow he knew that she was thinking about all of these families that would be reunited after the war. And how she wouldn't have that. _Oh, Mom, I'm so sorry._

"I mostly came here just to thank you for dinner. You didn't have to do that, but we really appreciated it. I'd say maybe there will be some left over if you're interested, but Chewie woke up and I think that should take care of anything we may have had left."

Jacen laughed, "Yeah, we heard him get up. Can't sneak anything past a Wookiee nose."

"No, you can't. And you really gave Han a run for his money I think, even he admitted that it was pretty good."

"Yeah, well that's one of our dad's favorites. I think he started showing us how to make it as soon as we had enough teeth to chew." Jaina could still so strongly recall their father enthusiastically showing them the procedure of thickening the sauce when they were too small to even see over the counter.

"He sounds like he's a good father."

They nodded, and Jacen replied, "He is." Or _was?_ Was that the point they were at now? "And Mom is amazing too. They're really great together."

"They remind me a lot of you and Captain Solo," Jaina said. She was getting desperate, why hold herself back anymore?

Leia smiled. "They must fight a lot then."

"No, actually," Jaina started. "I mean, a little, but mostly they're just a really great team. They're so much better together than they are on their own." The twins had lost count of how many people over the years had talked about how those two were a force to be reckoned with. And they had witnessed it many times.

Leia was silent for a few moments, thinking. "I guess sometimes we can work pretty well together."

"And hey, you know, our mom told us that our dad used to act kinda like that with her. Like, he argued with her and teased her a bunch and how she was so annoyed by him all the time. Now she's so in love with him it's almost enough to make you want to puke."

"And then what about your father?"

"Dad couldn't hide how much he loves Mom if his life depended on it. I guess it took him a long time to convince Mom to take a chance on him, but as far as we can tell, she's never regretted it."

A wistful sort of look crossed their mother's face and a hint of a smile tugged at her lips as she looked at the floor, and then back up at them. "I'm glad that you two have that. You know, my parents were very much in love as well."

The twins stared intently at their mother as she began talking. Every now and then she would tell them stories about her parents, the Organas. When they were younger the stories had reminded them more about how they had missed out on having grandparents. Not that you truly missed what you never had in the first place, but from the stories Leia had told them, they knew that they would've enjoyed having them in their lives. It wasn't until they were a little older that they had begun to realize the kind of loss this must have been for their mother. Especially seeing her now, when the wound was still fairly raw. And she didn't have years of healing and a loving husband and children to help fill the emptiness left from the loss. They shuddered a little thinking about what it might be like if they ever lost their parents in a similar fashion. Just the thought caused an ache in the pit of their stomachs.

She continued, "It's a nice feeling, isn't it?" It didn't appear she was really looking for an answer, so the twins simply nodded quietly. "We'll get you home to them. I'll make sure of it."

They knew she meant it. They also knew that she had no idea how simple it was for her to make that happen. It was immensely frustrating

"All right," Leia started as she stood again, "well I think I'm going to go get some sleep, and I'll leave you two to do the same. Thank you again for dinner, it was wonderful."

"Oh, no problem. Goodnight," they both said as Leia disappeared out the door, leaving them alone again.

The room felt a little colder after she was gone, and Jacen turned to his sister. "I still miss Mom."

She wrapped her arm around his shoulder and leaned her head against his. "Me, too, brother. Me, too."

* * *

After being as quiet as possible so as to avoid running into Han again that evening, Leia quietly slipped into her bunk in the hopes of getting at least a little bit of sleep. She wondered what it was that had made her open up to those kids. Strangely, felt some sort of connection to them. Maybe it was just that it had been a while since she had anyone to talk to really. Or anyone besides Han, anyway. She hadn't even gotten to talk to Luke in what felt like an eternity. Maybe it was something else. She felt oddly drawn to looking after them. Although she supposed that her general nature seemed to make her want to look after people, and it had been a while since she'd spent much time around people younger than she was.

Even stranger though was their insistence that she and Han reminded them of their parents. Especially with the way they had described them. They sounded about as far from her and Han as she could imagine. Perhaps since the children both had brown hair and brown eyes there was some physical resemblance. Whatever the reason, she caught herself thinking how sometimes it was nice to be reminded that there were real, decent beings who could be saved in this war. People like this; a loving couple who had raised what seemed like good children, just hoping for the galaxy to be safe again. There had to be thousands if not millions of families just like that out there. If that wasn't worth fighting for, she didn't know what was.

As she shut her eyes, her thoughts moved back to Han. Sooner or later, she was going to have to say goodbye to him. There seemed to be no getting around that anymore. She had just been reminded again of the pain of losing her parents. And now she was going to be losing Han as well. Was she only ever going to lose everyone she loved?

She stopped herself. _You don't love him. You can't. Loving him would only make things worse._

Those were her last thoughts before she finally fell asleep.


End file.
